Home

News

Contents

OnVideo NOVEMBER Video Reviews

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN After decades of being stalled in legal complications, the 1950 musical classic finally wends its way to home video: The fantastic, fabulous "Annie Get Your Gun," starring Betty Hutton, Howard Keel, Louis Calhern, Keenan Wynn and Edward Arnold. Packed with some of Irving Berlin's greatest tunes ("There's No Business Like Show Business," "Doin' What Comes Naturally," "Anything You Can Do," "The Girl That I Marry," "They Say It's Wonderful," "I Got the Sun in the Morning"), the film mounted production in 1949 under the auspices of Busby Berkeley, who was fired nine months into filming after turning in poor footage. Director George Sidney picked up the reins, bringing the film in before deadline with a budget of $3.8 million (the most costly MGM musical to date). Judy Garland was originally cast as Annie Oakley but, after recording the entire score, left because of health problems. Frank Morgan (of "Wizard of Oz" fame) was cast as Buffalo Bill, but died during production, leading to the casting of Calhern. Despite its setbacks, the film opened to rave reviews and went on to become one of the highest-grossing movies of the year. Because of licensing problems, "Annie" hasn't been seen theatrically or on TV since 1973, but all that has changed and Turner Entertainment and Warner Bros. is bringing it back, lavishly restored, first on home video. Both the VHS and DVD editions contain Garland performing "Doin' What Comes Naturally" and "I'm an Indian, Too," along with Hutton singing the rarely heard Berlin ballad "Let's Go West Again." The DVD features rare production dailies of Garland's version of "I'm an Indian, Too"; audio commentary by director George Sidney; a bonus recording session of the original cast performing "There's No Business Like Show Business"; an outtake of "Colonel Buffalo Bill" as originally performed by Frank Morgan, and a production stills gallery. Director: George Sidney. Stars: Betty Hutton, Howard Keel. CC, Musical, 1950, (Warner), $19.98 SRP, Available: 11/14, DVD: Day & Date. BIG MOMMA'S HOUSE Wild comedy has Martin Lawrence as an FBI agent who impersonates the grandmother of the ex-girlfriend (Nia Long) of an escaped bank-robbing killer. There's plenty of slapstick, physical comedy and double entendres as Lawrence's agent -- gussied up as the big-boned, big bosomed Big Mamma -- insinuates himself into the young woman's life to find out what she knows about her ex. Some gross-out humor but not nearly as bad as Nutty Professor II. Director: Raja Gosnell. Stars: Martin Lawrence, Nia Long, Paul Giamatti, Jascha Washington, Terrence Howard. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 99 min.), Comedy, 2000, Box office gross: $116.511 million, (Fox), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 11/14, DVD: November 28. CHICKEN RUN Delightful Aardman Studio clay animation (the folks who created the award-winning Wallace & Gromit series) about chickens unsuccessfully trying to escape the confines of the English Tweedy Egg Farm. Into their midst flies Rocky, an American rooster with a large ego who eventually helps the confined egg-layers fly the coop -- so to speak -- before the evil Mrs. Tweedy bakes them all into chicken pies. "The Great Escape," anyone? Director: Peter Lord, Nick Park. Stars: Voices of Mel Gibson, Julia Sawalha, Miranda Richardson, Jane Horrocks, Tony Haygarth. CC, (MPAA rating: G, 85 min.), Animated, 2000, Box office gross: $103.000 million, (DreamWorks), $16.95 SRP, Available: 11/21, DVD: Day & Date. GLADIATOR The glory and horror of Rome (about 200 A.D.) comes to the screen in this spectacular epic about a Roman general (Russell Crowe) at the peak of his conquering powers (the opening scene of warfare has to be one of the most spectacular -- and gory -- put on screen) betrayed by the nasty son of the dying Emperor and ordered executed. Escaping death, he falls into the hands of a slaver, becomes a gladiator, and eventually makes his way back to Rome, where he becomes a hero of the Colosseum to face off against the new Emperor. Director: Ridley Scott. Stars: Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Oliver Reed, Richard Harris, Derek Jacobi. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 150 min.), Roman Epic, 2000, Box office gross: $181.632 million, (DreamWorks), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 11/21, DVD: Day & Date. JOSEPH: KING OF DREAMS DreamWorks' first direct-to-video animated feature takes a wonderfully loving look at the biblical tale of Joseph and his rise to power in Egypt. As would be expected, the story line here takes some liberties with the Old Testament, but it's a small price to pay for the overriding educational value of the production. The characters are sympathetic, intelligent and multidimensional; they're thrust into adventures more thought-provoking than sensationalized or stripped of their inherent symbolic meaning. The production pays homage to a great tale and to the tradition of good storytelling. The only shortcoming: some musical numbers that don't quite stand up to the strength of the story and the animation. A must for children -- and adults. Voices of Ben Affleck, Mark Hamill, Steven Weber, Judith Light. CC, Animated, 2000, $24.99 SRP,Available: 11/07, DVD: Day & Date. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2 Tom Cruise is back with the M:I force, but this time in the adept hands of action-director John Woo. And that makes all the difference in the world as this thrill-ride of a film starts out with gung-ho action and never stops, with plenty of Woo's trademarked destructive action sequences. The plot is rather weak, about an ex-M:I operative who steals a deadly virus and the efforts of Cruise and his cohorts to track him down and thwart his plans. Check your vertigo at the door. Thandie Newton is unbelievable as the ex-girlfriend of the ex-M:I operative as well as Cruise's latest flame; Ving Rhames is wasted as one of Cruise's crew. Director: John Woo. Stars: Tom Cruise, Dougray Scott, Thandie Newton, Ving Rhames, Brendan Gleeson, John Poison, Rade Serbedzija. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 123 min.), Action, 2000, Box office gross: $212.571 million, (Paramount), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 11/07, DVD: Day & Date. PERFECT STORM, THE Director Wolfgang Petersen's big budget adventure about blue-collar fisherman who venture out into stormy seas for one last catch of the season has all the essential elements of good old-fashioned storytelling: human drama, truth, love and, of course, insurmountable odds when men face off against nature. The odds favor nature as the film traces the journey of the small ship into the fast approaching "storm of the century": the real 1991 convergence of three rampaging weather fronts in the North Atlantic. Director: Wolfgang Petersen. Stars: George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, John C. Reilly, Diane Lane, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Karen Allen. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 129 min.), Adventure, 2000, Box office gross: $170.483 million, (Warner Bros.), $14.95 SRP, Available: 11/14, DVD: Day & Date. POKEMON THE MOVIE 2000 Two Pokemon short films tied together to capitalize on last year's smash hit "Pokemon the Movie" (and fad now fast fading): "Pikachu's Rescue Adventure" (22 minutes) and "The Power of One" (80 minutes); the former about Pikachu's adventures in an underground forest and the latter about Pokemon trainer Ash's attempts to restore the balance of nature set askew by a greedy Pokemon collector. Most definitely for Pokemon kids only. Director: Kunihiko Yuyama, Michael Haigney. Voices of Veonica Taylor, Rachael Lillis, Eric Stuart, Ted Lewis, Ikue Otani. CC, (MPAA rating: G, 102 min.), Animated, 2000, Box office gross: $43.492 million, (Warner), Available: 11/14, DVD: Day & Date. REPLACEMENTS, THE Typical sports comedy, in which a group of inept athletes come together and become winners in spite of themselves, here riffing on the NFL football strike more than a decade ago. When the Washington Sentinels stage a walkout late in the season, the team's down-to-earth owner (Jack Warden) hires an ex-coach (Gene Hackman) who puts together a team of misfit replacements: a blue-collar worker (Keanu Reeves), a butter-fingered sprinter, an overzealous cop, a Japanese Sumo wrestler and a chain-smoking soccer kicker (Rhys Ifans). Director: Howard Deutch. Stars: Keanu Reeves, Gene Hackman, Brook Langton, Orlando Jones, Jon Favreau, Rhys Ifans, Jack Warden. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 118 min.), Sports Comedy, 2000, Box office gross: $43.487 million, (Warner), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 11/28, DVD: Day & Date. TITAN A.E. A promising sci-fi premise falls flat in this animated feature that was to be Fox's entree into big time animation but ended up toppling a studio head. With the Earth destroyed by the vicious alien race The Drej, surviving humans have scattered throughout space as roaming second-class refugees. One young human, Cale, the son of the scientist who created the Titan, a giant spaceship that holds the secret to the salvation of humankind, toils on a grungy salvage station until he learns that his father left him a genetically encoded ring containing a map to Titan's location. With a renegade crew, and one step ahead of The Drej, Cale embarks on a mission to find a New World. The emphasis on adolescent humor and bravado, a way-out-of-control music-video soundtrack, and weak story line sucked the film into a cinematic black hole. Director: Don Bluth, Gary Goldman. Voices of Matt Damon, Drew Barrymore, Bill Pullman, Nathan Lane, Tone Loc, Janeane Garofalo, John Leguizamo. CC, (MPAA rating: PG, 94 min.), Animated, 2000, Box office gross: $22.644 million, (Fox), $19.98 SRP, Available: 11/07, DVD: Day & Date. X-MEN Splashy, special effects laden and exciting, this big-screen adaptation of Stan Lee's comic book series has the X-Men -- a group of mutants with a variety of odd powers and abilities -- facing off against an evil brotherhood, headed up by Magneto, bent on ruling the world. Fine cast -- Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Famke Jannsen, Halle Berry -- headed up by director Bryan ("The Usual Suspects") Singer. Expect a sequel. Director: Bryan Singer. Stars: Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Jannsen, Hugh Jackman, Anna Paquin, Tyler Mane. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 104 min.), Science Fiction, 2000, Box office gross: $153.000 million, (Fox), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 11/21, DVD: Day & Date. All films are screened using the DVD version, when available, on a reference Onkyo DV-S717 DVD player. | Contents/Site Map | Home | Resources | VidNews | KidVid | Calendar | Sell-Through | DVD | Reviews | E-mail: mail@onvideo.org © 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 OnVideo. All rights reserved October 15, 2000