ANOTHER DAY IN
PARADISE
Outright craziness abounds in this absorbing road tale about a makeshift
family of professional thieves on a crime spree. James Woods and Melanie
Griffith are a scheming couple who "adopt" two young, wired, dysfunctional teens
(Natasha Gregson Wagner and Vincent Kartheiser) about to hit bottom and attempt
to teach them the ropes of criminal life. It's "National Lampoon's
Family Vacation" meet "Bonnie & Clyde" gone totally weird.
Director: Larry
Clark. Stars: James Woods, Melanie Griffith, Vincent Kartheiser,
Natasha Gregson Wagner. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 101 min.), Drama,
1999, Box office gross: $0.193 million, (Trimark), No
SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 5/11,
DVD: Day & Date.
BABE: PIG IN THE
CITY
This sequel to the highly successful "Babe" got blind-sided by
bad pre-release buzz and poor positioning by Universal: it's a
brilliant film, almost surreal in its telling, that follows Babe
and farmer Hogget's wife on a misguided journey into the "city"
to make money to save the farm. The pair encounter evil humans
and evil animals (including a nasty family of chimps) but the
pig's "humanness" rises to the occasion and goodness wins out. A
tad dark for most kids -- and some adults, evidently -- but the
cinematography and fable-like storytelling make a winning
combination.
Director: . Stars: .
CC, (MPAA rating: G, 88 min.), Family, 1998, Box office
gross: $17.000 million, (Universal), $22.98 SRP,
Available: 5/4, DVD: Day & Date.
GLORIA
Director Sidney Lumet has fallen on hard times. This weak remake
of John Cassavete's 1980 classic -- about an ex-mob mistress who
risks everything to save the life of a young boy orphaned when
his family is rubbed out by her criminal cohorts -- is merely a
star vehicle for Sharon Stone, who fails mightily in filling the
shoes worn by Gena Rowlands in the original. Spruced up for the
1990s, this Gloria doesn't age well. Rent the original before
watching this one.
Director: Sidney
Lumet. Stars: Sharon Stone, Jeremy Northam, Jean-Luke Figueroa,
Cathy Moriarty, George C. Scott, Mike Starr. CC, (MPAA rating: R,
108 min.), Thriller, 1998, Box office gross: $4.155 million,
(Columbia TriStar), No SRP, Priced for rental,
Available: 5/25, DVD: Day &
Date.
HOLY MAN
Lackluster comedy has Eddie Murphy star as an inspirational guru
who moves from the streets of Miami to national television to
become an over-the-top marketing genius, taking a home shopping
network -- and the country -- by storm. Straying into his new job
as guru of consumerism, the holy man raises the network's profits
as well as raising the consciousness of the jaded exec (Jeff
Goldblum) who inadvertently got him there in the first place. For
Murphy fans only.
Director: Stephen
Herek. Stars: Eddie Murphy, Jeff Goldblum, Kelly Preston. CC,
(MPAA rating: PG, min.), Comedy, 1998, Box office gross:
$12.065 million, (Buena Vista), No SRP, Priced for
rental, Available: 5/18, DVD: Day &
Date.
IMPOSTORS, THE
Two out of work actors end up becoming stowaways on an ocean
liner bound for Europe, wreaking havoc with crew and passengers
alike as they evade the authorities and foil the bomb plot of a
deranged crewman in this Marx Bros.-type slapstick. Starring
Stanley Tucci and Oliver Platt as the troubled thespians, the
film plods along at a lackadaisical pace, as if it were a stand-
up comedian waiting for non-existent laughs. Too many double-
takes and not enough belly laughs.
Director: Stanley
Tucci. Stars: Stanley Tucci, Oliver Platt, Alfred Molina,
Campbell Scott, Tony Shalhoub, Lily Taylor. CC, (MPAA rating: R,
101 min.), Comedy, 1998, Box office gross: $2.197 million,
(Fox), No SRP, Priced for rental,
Available: 5/18, DVD: Day &
Date.
ORGAZMO
Misfired satire of religion and the porn industry, with a young Morman
who takes the word of the lord door-to-door finding himself involved
in sex films as the super-hero Orgazmo -- who packs an orgasm-
making gun -- to finance his wedding. Things spiral out of
control when his new-found friend and porn sidekick invents a
real ray-gun and the pair take their roles too seriously. A real
stinker of an outing -- somewhere way below the worst bad taste
of John Waters -- by Trey Parker, creator of TV's "South Park."
Use of four-letter words will offend even the staunchist defender
of the First Amendment.
Director: Trey
Parker. Stars: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Dian Bachar, Robyn Lynne,
Michael Dean Jacobs. CC, (MPAA rating: NC-17, 94 min.), Comedy,
1998, Box office gross: $0.549 million, (PolyGram), No
SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 5/11,
DVD: No.
SAVING PRIVATE
RYAN
Academy Award winning (including best director for Steven
Spielberg) World War II epic that swirls around the D-Day landing
at Omaha Beach and branches out in the search for the missing-in-
action Pvt. Ryan, whose three siblings were all killed within
days of each other. Gruesome and horrible in its depiction of the
blood-soaked human cost of battle, the film is ultimately a
search for the minute amount of humanness that rises up against
all odds to the contrary. Powerful filmmaking.
Director: Steven
Spielberg. Stars: Tom Hanks, Edward Burns, Tom Sizemore, Matt
Damon, Vin Diesel, Giovanni Ribisi, Jeremy Davies. CC, (MPAA
rating: R, 160 min.), War, 1998, Box office gross: $211.000
million, (DreamWorks), No SRP, Priced for
rental, Available: 5/25, DVD:
No.
STAR TREK:
INSURRECTION
The ninth feature film in the Star Trek franchise has the crew of
the Starship Enterprise initially investigating a survey mission
gone awry on a strange planet. Here they not only discover a
planet whose population has attained eternal youth, they uncover
a sinister plot by an aging, dying race to forcefully "cleanse"
the planet of its civilization in order to harness the "fountain
of youth." Against Federation orders, the crew joins in to save
the planet and its inhabitants. Not as spectacular as previous
voyages, but nevertheless an outer space thrill ride.
Director: Jonathan
Frakes. Stars: Patric Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner,
LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, F. Murray Abraham. CC, (MPAA rating:
PG, 103 min.), Science Fiction, 1998, Box office gross:
$70.118 million, (Paramount), No SRP, Priced for
rental, Available: 5/11, DVD: Day &
Date.
VELVET
GOLDMINE
Story of the rise and fall of a mythical 1970s glam rock god who
fakes an onstage shooting at the peak of his fame and then
suddenly disappears when the hoax is revealed. A la "Citizen
Kane," a journalist digs into the story via interviews with the
star's wife, lovers and friends 10 years later. Its a sensual
romantic musical video paean to a rock time gone by. Stars Ewan
McGregor, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Toni Collette and Christian Bale.
Director: Todd
Haynes. Stars: Ewan McGregor, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Toni
Collette, Christian Bale. CC, (MPAA rating: R, min.), Rock
Drama, 1998, Box office gross: $1.043 million, (Miramax),
No SRP, Priced for rental, Available:
5/11, DVD: No.
VERY BAD
THINGS
Five buddies on a bachelor party romp in Las Vegas accidentally
kill a prostitute, setting off a horrific chain of events that
leads to paranoia, various coverups, and more murders before the
happy couple trip the light fantastic down the wedding aisle. A
mad comic vision that attempts to strip away the veneer of
middle-class civility by showing the dark side of seemingly
normal people. There's some very funny moments here but for the
most part the film is just too over-the-edge dark to be
enjoyable. Kudos to the fine ensemble cast -- particularly
Cameron Diaz playing against her goody-goody roles of the past --
for attempting to pull it off. Stars Christian Slater, Daniel
Stern, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Jon Favreau and Jeremy Piven.
Director: Peter
Berg. Stars: Christian Slater, Cameron Diaz, Daniel Stern, Jeanne
Tripplehorn, Jon Favreau, Jeremy Piven. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 100
min.), Dark Comedy, 1998, Box office gross: $9.876 million,
(PolyGram), No SRP, Priced for rental,
Available: 5/18, DVD: No.
YOU'VE GOT
MAIL
Rough remake of Ernst Lubitsch's 1940 classic "The Shop Around
the Corner," about co-workers in a shop who don't know they're
lonely-hearts pen pals. Here it's updated with Meg Ryan as a
neighborhood book store owner and Tom Hanks as a young mogul from
a national conglomerate out to put her out of business, who fall
in love via e-mail. The pair cross paths in the course of their
business, never suspecting that the other is each's online
paramour, until, of course, the duality is revealed. It's
"Sleepless in Seattle" for the wired generation.
Director: Nora
Ephron. Stars: Tom Hanks, Parker Posey, Meg Ryan, Jean Stapleton,
Dave Chappelle, Dabney Coleman. CC, (MPAA rating: PG, 120 min.),
Comedy, 1998, Box office gross: $114.000 million, (Warner),
No SRP, Priced for rental, Available:
5/4, DVD: Day & Date.
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