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OnVideo JUNE Video Reviews

CAST AWAY Tour de force performance for Tom Hanks as a FedEx systems engineer -- whose life depends on time and speed -- who finds himself stranded on a deserted island when the plane he's in crashes into the sea. Now, of course, there is no modern time -- just the primordial passing of day into night and the constant struggle for survival. Hanks becomes a changed man as he learns how to survive -- and as he learns the difference between survival and living. It's a modern day Robinson Crusoe for Hanks and director Robert Zemeckis, who milk it all for what it's worth -- a giant smash at the box office. Oh yeah -- did we mention he gets rescued after 4 years? Director: Robert Zemeckis. Stars: Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt, Chris Noh, Nick Searcy, Lari White. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 142 min.), Adventure, 2000, Box office gross: $230.000 million, (Fox/DreamWorks), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 6/12, DVD: Day & Date. CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON "Crouching Tiger" won the Oscar and Golden Globe as best foreign language film and garnered a host of honors for director Ang Lee (a Golden Globe for best director, among other nods from critics' associations). And no wonder: Lee's delicate merging of glorious pastoral 19th century Chinese scenes with romance and high-flying martials arts is just gorgeous. The story sings also: A legendary warrior (Chow Yun-Fat) entrusts his sword to his female warrior partner so that she can deliver it as a gift to a revered Bejiing elder. But along the way the sword is stolen by a young woman who turns out to be quite an aggressive warrior herself, setting into motion astoundingly choreographed battles. The spectacular face-offs were created by martial arts specialist Yuen Wo Ping, who choreographed the stunts in "The Matrix." Director: Ang Lee. Stars: Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Gang Zip Ii, Chang Chen, Lung Sihung, Cheng Pei Pei. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 120 min.), Romantic Epic, 2000, Box office gross: $100.277 million, (Columbia TriStar), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 6/5, DVD: Day & Date. DUDE, WHERE'S MY CAR? Brain-dead comedy about a pair of slackers who wake up one morning so wasted that they can't remember a thing, including where their car is. But that's only the beginning of their problems: they apparently trashed their girlfriend's house, are being chased by aliens -- and there's a refrigerator full of mysterious pudding cups. And what about those cross-gendered exotic dancers? Director: Danny Leiner. Stars: Ashton Kutcher, Seann William Scott, Jennifer Garner, Marla Sokoloff, Kristy Swanson, Hal Sparks. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 83 min.), Comedy, 2000, Box office gross: $46.664 million, (Fox), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 6/26, DVD: Day & Date. O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? Another irony-laden comedy from the Coen brothers (director Joel and writer Ethan), taking its spiritual roots from Homer's "The Odyssey." Three convicts (George Clooney, John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson) escape from a Mississippi chain gang in the 1930s and head out in search of buried treasure, along the way encountering a wide assortment of colorful characters, including a black musician who has sold his soul to the devil, a one-eyed bible salesman (John Goodman), a campaigning governor (Charles Durning) and George Babyface Nelson. They even manage to record a hit record and break up a wild Klan meeting. Black comedy at its best. And the soundtrack is the ultimate collection of American roots music. Director: Joel Coen. Stars: George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, John Goodman, Holly Hunter, Chris Thomas King, Charles Durning, Michael Badalucco. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 106 min.), Comedy, 2000, Box office gross: $30.823 million, (Buena Vista), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 6/12, DVD: Day & Date. PLEDGE, THE A Nevada homicide cop (Jack Nicholson) on the day before his retirement makes a pledge to an anguished mother to find the rapist-killer of her young daughter -- and becomes obsessed with tracking the perpetrator. Although the police quickly close the case, the ex-cop finds new leads in the case pointing to a series of similar crimes and, on his own, buys a house and gas station at a key intersection in the county, hoping that the killer will travel his way. The driven cop enters a dubious relationship with a widow and her young daughter, but his obsession -- even though he may be right -- eventually destroys the people closest to him -- and turns his life into an emotional shambles. Director: Sean Penn. Stars: Jack Nicholson, Robin Wright Penn, Pauline Roberts, Sam Shepard, Benicio Del Torro, Aaron Eckhart, Helen Mirren, Mickey Rourke. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 124 min.), Thriller, 2001, Box office gross: $17.607 million, (Warner), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 6/19, DVD: Day & Date. PROOF OF LIFE Exciting drama about a "Kidnap and Ransom" specialist -- played by Russell Crowe -- and his attempts to win freedom for an American engineer (David Morse) who's been kidnapped by South American guerrillas. Complicating matters is the fact that K&R insurance on the engineer -- taken out by his company -- has lapsed and there's no large funds to pay the captors. Add in the man's estranged wife, played by Meg Ryan, who may be falling for Crowe, wild kidnappers, rough Andean terrain, and the overriding question of what is the worth of human life, and you have an exciting drama propelled along by Taylor Hackford's workmanlike direction. Director: Taylor Hackford. Stars: Meg Ryan, Russell Crowe, David Morse, Pamela Reed, David Caruso, Anthony Heald, Stanley Anderson. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 133 min.), Drama, 2000, Box office gross: $33.470 million, (Warner), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 6/19, DVD: Day & Date. SAVE THE LAST DANCE Coming-of-age drama about a 17-year-old woman (Julia Stiles) whose dreams of becoming a ballet dancer are shattered when her mother is killed in a car accident. Faced with the cold reality of life on the wrong side of the tracks, she meets a young man on his way to becoming a doctor and they hit it off -- except that she's white and he's black, causing all kinds of problems both at school and the hip-hop club they frequent. But -- as in "Flashdance" and "Dirty Dancing," those cool moves save the day. Director: Thomas Carter. Stars: Julia Stiles, Sean Patrick Thomas, Terry Kinney, Fredro Starr, Bianca Lawson, Kerry Washington. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 113 min.), Drama, 2001, Box office gross: $88.034 million, (Paramount), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 6/19, DVD: Day & Date. STATE AND MAIN Talky comedy about a Hollywood film production descending upon -- and taking over -- a small New England town. A crazy quilt of characters -- from both the cast and crew and the town -- interact in wild and wacky ways. The main problem starts when the writer of the film -- "The Old Mill" -- discovers that the town's old mill burned down 40 years ago, and has to write the central location out of the script. From there we get the bookstore owner who lusts after the writer, the male lead's predilection for underage girls, the busty female lead who refuses to bear herself, and more. Ultimately a tiresome exercise. Director: David Mamet. Stars: Alec Baldwin, Charles Durning, Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, Sarah Jessica Parker, David Paymer, Julia Stiles. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 102 min.), Comedy, 2000, Box office gross: $6.339 million, (New Line), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 6/19, DVD: Day & Date. UNBREAKABLE A successful follow-up (but not sequel) to "The Sixth Sense" by writer-director M. Night Shyamalan. Shyamalan again uses the canvas of the big screen to explore the meaning of life by way of characters cast into unusual roles. Here Bruce Willis plays a quite ordinary man who survives a train derailment -- in which all the passengers are killed -- without a scratch. After some investigation it turns out that Willis -- who has never been sick a day in his life -- may be a modern day "superhero" -- an "unbreakable" -- put here to protect us. His mentor is a comic book maven (Samuel L. Jackson) born with a disease that makes his bones as brittle as dried leaves, who urges Willis to come to grips with his powers for the exercise of good. Slowly but surely the "super" man comes to find his place on Earth ... but not without some shocking revelations. Fascinating. Director: M. Night Shyamalan. Stars: Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Robin Wright Penn, Spencer Treat Clark, Eamonn Walker. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 107 min.), Thriller, 2000, Box office gross: $93.552 million, (Buena Vista), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 6/26, DVD: Day & Date. YOU CAN COUNT ON ME Lost in the flurry of end-of-the-year big budget thrillers, this delightful small drama deserves a big second chance on video. After years of drifting away from his family, footloose and fancy-free Terry (Mark Ruffalo) returns to his small home town to visit his sister Sammy (Laura Linney) and 8-year-old nephew. Sammy works as a loan officer, and is a responsible mother and churchgoer. Terry's arrival shakes things up: he stays longer than he had expected, taking a paternal interest in Sammy's son, freeing Sammy from the chores of motherhood and allowing her to express her wild side. She indulges in a bad affair with her married boss, smokes dope, and turns down the marriage request of a solid -- but boring -- suitor. Both Terry and Sammy are searching for meaning in their lives: he through a kind of irresponsible wanderlust, she by testing the limits (albeit modestly) of conventional behavior. As in the real world, these filmic characters have difficulty resolving their inner and outer conflicts, yet they do end up learning something more about themselves -- and life. Director: Kenneth Lonergan. Stars: Laura Linney, Mark Ruffalo, Rory Culkin, Matthew Broderick, Jon Tenney. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 111 min.), Drama, 2000, Box office gross: $8.409 million, (Paramount), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 6/26, 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 May 15, 2001