BEAN
Rowan Atkinson reprises his role from numerous British comedy
shorts as Mr. Bean, an ungainly goofball prone to all sorts of
slapstick accidents. Here he's pawned off by London's National
Art Gallery as a curator and sent to America to accompany the
famous "Whistler's Mother," which has been sold to a Los Angeles
gallery. Naturally Bean wrecks havoc with the art world. An
acquired taste.
Director: Mel Smith.
Stars: Rowan Atkinson, Peter MacNicol, Pamela Reed, Harris Yulin.
CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 87 min.), Comedy, 1997, Box office
gross: $45.262 million, (PolyGram), No SRP, Priced
for rental, Available: 3/31
EVE'S BAYOU
Life and love among a close-knit family in Louisiana, from the
point-of-view of 10-year-old Eve Batiste, whose philandering
father throws a monkey wrench into an otherwise stable life.
Eve and her older sister lose faith and love in their dad, while
their mother and aunt (their dad's sister) form an alliance. When
the aunt's "gift" of contacting the spiritual world helps Eve
develop her own metaphysical powers, the film slowly builds to
its resolution. Great performances, great script. Stars Samuel L.
Jackson, Lynn Whitfield, Debbi Morgan, Vondie Curtis Hall,
Diahann Carroll.
Director: Kasi
Lemmons. Stars: Samuel L. Jackson, Lynn Whitfield, Debbi Morgan,
Vondie Curtis Hall, Diahann Carroll. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 109
min.), Drama, 1997, Box office gross: $13.698 million,
(Trimark 6437), No SRP, Priced for rental,
Available: 3/3
I KNOW WHAT
YOU DID LAST SUMMER
After an accident on a winding road, four teens make the mistake
of dumping their victim's body into the sea. Naturally, one year
later the dead man returns from the grave looking for more than
an apology. Great chills and thrills from the pen of contemporary
horrormeister Kevin ("Scream") Williamson. Stars Jennifer Love
Hewitt, Sarah Michelle-Gellar, Freddie Prinz Jr.
Director: Jim
Gillespie. Stars: Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle-Gellar,
Freddie Prinz Jr. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 101 min.), Horror,
1997, Box office gross: $70.507 million, (Columbia TriStar 23923),
No SRP, Priced for rental, Available:
3/24
IN & OUT
Kevin Kline plays Howard Brackett, an on-his-way to be married
small town English teacher whose life is torn asunder when a
former student announces on television (during the Academy
Awards, no less) that Howard is gay. Now the center of a media
feeding frenzy and defending himself from a slick TV reporter
moving in for the kill, the teacher must take a deeper look at
his life. Great comedy turns by Joan Cusack (as the fiancee), Tom
Selleck (as the reporter) and, of course, the ever incredible
Kline.
Director: Frank Oz.
Stars: Kevin Kline, Joan Cusack, Matt Dillon, Debbie Reynolds,
Tom Selleck. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 92 min.), Comedy, 1997,
Box office gross: $63.774 million, (Paramount 329873), No
SRP, Priced for rental, Available:
3/10
LIFE LESS ORDINARY,
A
A janitor at a giant corporation and the daughter of the
corporation's boss are thrown together by a pair of angels who
help them engineer a kidnap and send them on a wild, headlong
cross-country odyssey of guns, bank-robbing and karaoke.
Director: Danny
Boyle. Stars: Ewan McGregor, Cameron Diaz, Holly Hunter, Delroy
Lindo. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 104 min.), Comedy, 1997, Box
office gross: $4.266 million, (Fox 4015), No SRP,
Priced for rental, Available:
3/10
MAN WHO KNEW
TOO LITTLE, THE
Bill Murray stars in this spy spoof as a video store clerk from
Iowa who flies to London to surprise his younger brother (Peter
Gallagher), and gets involved in a role-playing interactive
theatre piece on the streets of London. When he gets mistaken for
a spy (he happens to be at the wrong phone booth at the wrong
time) he gets sucked into a deadly game of cat and mouse, all the
time thinking the spies chasing him down are really the actors in
the play. Ah, ignorance is bliss.
Director: Jon Amiel.
Stars: Bill Murray, Peter Gallagher, Joanne Whalley. CC, (MPAA
rating: PG, 94 min.), Comedy, 1997, Box office gross: $13.429
million, (Warner 15626), No SRP, Priced for
rental, Available: 3/10
MIMIC
Husband and wife scientists work on a way to combat a disease, spread
by
roaches, threatening children in New York City. They combine the DNA
of various
insects to create a new species that wipes out the roaches,
effectively
eradicating the epidemic. Unfortunately, the new species, supposedly
sterile,
learns to reproduce and survives, and, three years later, has become a
strange
new life form, developing into creatures that have learned to
camouflage
themselves as their prey -- humans. Fast-paced science fiction starts
out with
interesting premise but deteriorates into silliness and cheap effects.
With Mira
Sorvino, Jeremy Northam, Charles S. Dutton and Josh Brolin.
Director: Guillermo
Del Toro. Stars: Mira Sorvino, Jeremy Northam, Josh Brolin,
Giancarlo Giannini. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 105 min.), Horror,
1997, Box office gross: $25.454 million, (Dimension 13137),
No SRP, Priced for rental, Available:
3/17
PEACEMAKER,
THE
George Clooney and Nicole Kidman team up as an Army Special
Intelligence Officer and a nuclear scientist, respectively, to
foil the plot of terrorists who hijack Russian warheads and plan
to use them to blow up the U.N. building in New York. Plenty of
great action, special effects, explosions and, of course, the
great good looks of Clooney and Kidman. A large bag of popcorn
needs to be chomped down during this one. In widescreen and pan-
and-scan.
Director: Mimi
Leder. Stars: George Clooney, Nicole Kidman. CC, (MPAA rating: R,
122 min.), Thriller, 1997, Box office gross: $41.191 million,
(Universal 83485), No SRP, Priced for rental,
Available: 3/10
SHE'S SO
LOVELY
Robin Wright Penn and Sean Penn star as lovers who end their
tempestuous love affair with his incarceration in a mental
hospital; 10 years later she has a new life married to wealthy
John Travolta. Released from the hospital, Sean goes looking for
her, rekindling old fires. Some fiery acting her, with lots of
passion, but the characters aren't the most loveable and the
film, scripted by the late John Cassavetes and directed by son
Nick, founders on a sea of verbal pyrotechnics without the
ballast of viewer identification.
Director: Nick
Cassavetes. Stars: John Travolta, Sean Penn, Robin Wright Penn.
CC, (MPAA rating: R, 96 min.), Drama, 1997, Box office gross:
$7.221 million, (Miramax 13472), No SRP, Priced for
rental, Available: 3/12
THOUSAND ACRES,
A
A rich land-owner (Jason Robards) distributes his 1,000 acre farm
equally to his three daughters (Michelle Pfeiffer, Jessica Lange,
Jennifer Jason Leigh), dividing the family as long-guarded
secrets, unspoken rivalries and frustrated desires surface with
catastrophic but ultimately liberating repercussions. Based on
Jane Smiley's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, an updating of "King
Lear" for the 1990s.
Director: Jocelyn
Moorhouse. Stars: Michelle Pfeiffer, Jessica Lange, Jennifer
Jason Leigh, Jason Robards. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 105 min.),
Drama, 1997, Box office gross: $7.813 million, (Buena Vista
12979), No SRP, Priced for rental,
Available: 3/24
U-TURN
There's sex, murder and betrayal in Superior, Arizona, as a
gambler on his way to pay off a Vegas debt gets stuck in the
weirdness of a desert town where the seemingly normal
turns bizarre and treacherous. From a shotgun-wielding
Mexican granny to a pathological teenager, this is one place in which
you
don't want to have a radiator hose break. Despite bravura performances
by Sean
Penn and Nick Nolte, this-Oliver Stone sleazefest offers twists and
turns that
end up being more cornball than shock filled. Stone has stolen a
little too much
this time -- from Orson Welles, Roman Polanski, and even Robert
Rodriguez. Stone
gave his all for "Natural Born Killers" and should let Quentin
Tarantinio handle
this stuff. Co-stars Billy Bob Thornton, Jon Voight, Jennifer Lopez,
Claire
Danes, Joaquin Phoenix.
Director: Oliver
Stone. Stars: Sean Penn, Billy Bob Thornton, Jon Voight, Jennifer
Lopez, Claire Danes, Nick Nolte, Joaquin Phoenix. CC, (MPAA
rating: R, 125 min.), Thriller, 1997, Box office gross:
$6.633 million, (Columbia TriStar 32523), No SRP,
Priced for rental, Available:
3/31
ULEE'S GOLD
Critically acclaimed drama about a beekeeper in Florida, a Vietnam War
hero
(Peter Fonda), who raises his two granddaughters
while his son resides in prison. When he's reunited with his
drug-addicted daughter-in-law, new problems present themselves:
his son's former partners in crime come looking for stashed
stolen loot. A quiet, understated performance by Fonda.
Director: Victor
Nunez. Stars: Peter Fonda, Patricia Richardson. CC, (MPAA rating:
R, 120 min.), Drama, 1997, Box office gross: $8.637 million,
(Orion 2110003), No SRP, Priced for rental,
Available: 3/24
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