OnVideo OCTOBER Video Reviews

OnVideo OCTOBER Video Reviews

EAST/WEST
Wonderfully imagined film that follows the plight of a young couple who return to the Soviet Union after WWII. At the end of the war, Stalin invited expatriate Russians to return to rebuild their country, and young doctor Alexei and his French wife Marie take up the offer, only to discover upon arrival the brutality of the reality of Cold War Russia. Many expatriates are murdered, but Alexei and family survive, battling during the course of years to survive and perhaps escape to the West.
Director: Regis Wargnier. Stars: Sandrine Bonnaire, Oleg Menchikov, Catherine Deneuve, Serguei Bodrov Jr., Tatiana Doguileva. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 125 min.), Drama, 1999, Box office gross: $2.170 million, (Columbia TriStar), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 10/3, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount

FREQUENCY
A ham radio mysteriously connects a father and son through a 30-year time warp and the two struggle together to prevent a murder that will seal their destinies. Back in 1969, Frank (Dennis Quaid) is a dedicated fireman and loving father to his son, John. In 1999, son John (Jim Caviezel) has become a cop whose personal life is on the rocks. One night he hooks up his dad's old ham radio and, during a weird solar storm, he picks up signals from his father. When John tells his father that he's going to die in a fire the very next day, the tragedy is averted. But time has become all messed up and the future has changed: John's mom is now dead, murdered by a serial killer still not caught 30 years later. The pair must now work out a way to alter the past to change the future for everyone. The film works amazingly well -- as a time-warp sci-fier and as a love story between a father and his son. This is a must-rent film for your friends and loved ones.
Director: Gregory Hoblit. Stars: Dennis Quaid, Jim Caviezel, Andre Braugher, Elizabeth Mitchell, Noah Emmerich. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 115 min.), Science Fiction, 2000, Box office gross: $44.670 million, (New Line), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 10/31, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount

KEEPING THE FAITH
Edward Norton stars in and directs this comedy about two hip men of God -- one a priest (Norton), the other a rabbi (Ben Stiller), friends since childhood -- whose very successful religious and emotional lives are upset when a childhood sweetheart (Jenna Elfman), now a high-powered corporate executive, re-enters their lives: both fall for her.
Director: Edward Norton. Stars: Edward Norton, Ben Stiller, Jenna Elfman, Anne Bancroft, Eli Wallach, Ron Rifkin, Milos Forman. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 125 min.), Comedy, 2000, Box office gross: $36.527 million, (Buena Vista), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 10/10, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount

LOVE & BASKETBALL
Quincy (Omar Epps) and Monica (Sanaa Lathan) are childhood friends and adversaries since they first met as children when her family moved next door. Hoping to become pro basketball players, they pursue their dreams through high school and college, helping each other on and off the court. But when forced to make a choice between love and basketball, which will they choose? A warm romance that shines brightly.
Director: Gina Prince-Blythewood. Stars: Omar Epps, Sanaa Lathan, Dennis Haysbert, Debbie Morgan, Alfre Woodard. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 124 min.), Romantic drama, 2000, Box office gross: $27.372 million, (New Line), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 10/10, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount

PATRIOT, THE
The birth of a nation through the eyes of producer and star Mel Gibson. This Revolutionary War costume drama has Gibson as a South Carolina farmer who, though he supports the Colonies and their uprising against the British, is reluctant to take part -- until the nasty British kill one of his sons and is about to kill another. He jumps into action, joining the militia and attacking the redcoats in hit-and-run ambushes, eventually becoming a leader and hero of the war. Stirring battle sequences make up for the lack of historical accuracy, which brought the film much criticism from scholars and pundits and undoubtedly helped its box office.
Director: Roland Emmerich. Stars: Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Joely Richardson, Jason Isaacs, Chris Cooper, Donal Logue. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 164 min.), Historical Epic, 2000, Box office gross: $108.357 million, (Columbia), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 10/24, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount

PITCH BLACK
An interstellar space ship carrying an assortment of travelers -- including a genetically enhanced killer convict (Vin Diesel) with night vision -- crashes on a desolate planet with three suns and no night. The only signs of life are huge bones lying around everywhere. When the survivors finally come upon a deserted encampment, they discover the horrible truth. Every 22 years there's a total eclipse, and strange flying creatures -- repelled by light and attracted to blood -- enter the night, relentlessly hunting for prey. How unfortunate (wink wink) that they've crashed just at the start of one such cycle. Will the castaways -- now lead by the convict -- get off the planet before their numbers are decimated?
Director: David Twohy. Stars: Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, Keith David, Claudia Black. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 107 min.), Science Fiction, 2000, Box office gross: $39.235 million, (USA), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 10/10, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount

RETURN TO ME
All-too-pat comedy of the heart about a heart transplant recipient, a waitress (Minnie Driver) in a Chicago Irish-Italian restaurant, who receives the organ from the wife of an architectural engineer (David Duchovny) who, one year after his wife dies, walks into the restaurant and is mysteriously smitten by -- guess who. Need we say more?
Director: Bonnie Hunt. Stars: David Duchovny, Minnie Driver, Carroll O'Connor, Robert Logia, Bonnie Hunt, Joely Richardson. CC, (MPAA rating: PG, 115 min.), Comedy, 2000, Box office gross: $32.283 million, (MGM), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 10/31, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
Courtroom drama that centers around the court-martial of a Marine colonel (Samuel L. Jackson) whose mission to rescue an American ambassador and his wife from violent protesters in Yemen resulted in a steep political body count -- three dead marines and 83 dead Yemenites. Tommy Lee Jones plays the defense attorney in need of redemption -- he's an alcoholic loser -- and Bruce Greenwood plays a nasty national security advisor attempting to crucify Jackson as part of a coverup.
Director: William Friedkin. Stars: Tommy Lee Jones, Samuel L. Jackson, Guy Pearce, Philip Baker Hall, Blair Underwood, Bruce Greenwood. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 128 min.), Action, 2000, Box office gross: $61.223 million, (Paramount), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 10/17, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount

SHANGHAI NOON
Martial arts comedy take on Westerns with Jackie Chan playing Chinese Imperial Guard Chon Wang (rhymes /with "John Wayne") who travels across the Nevada desert by train to rescue a princess kidnapped from the Forbidden City. Along the way Wang foils a train robbery by a group of misfit bandits and when he later meets the band's leader in a local saloon, a brawl ensues and the two end up in jail. They soon team up, break out of jail and set out to rescue the princess and a trunk full of gold. After the initial jokes wear off (Chan in Chinese dress constantly mistaken as some sort of American Indian) and the juxtaposition of martial arts in the Old West wears thin, the movie's charm wears out.
Director: Tom Dey. Stars: Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson, Lucy Liu, Brandon Merrill, Roger Yuan, Xander Berkeley, Walter Goggins. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 110 min.), Western comedy, 2000, Boxoffice gross: $54.268 million, (Buena Vista), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 10/10, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount

SKULLS, THE
A hard working law student at an Ivy League college accepts an invitation to join The Skulls -- a prestigious (and secret) college service organization usually reserved for more well-to-do students -- in the hopes of furthering his career. Little does he know what he's gotten himself into -- The Skulls are not what they seem to be.
Director: Rob Cohen. Stars: Joshua Jackson, Paul Walker, Hill Harper, Leslie Bibb, Craig T. Nelson, William Peterson. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, min.), Drama, 2000, Box office gross: $35.007 million, (Universal), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 10/3, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount

SNOW DAY
It's Snow Day -- a blizzard hits town and school is closed -- and the kids take the opportunity to have fun, destroy property and flaunt parental rules. This goofy Nickelodeon comedy has a host of subplots featuring a workaholic mom (Jean Smart), a struggling newsman (Chevy Chase) and teens in love, but the piece de resistance is the kid's attack on the dreaded Snowplowman (Chris Elliott), whose job it is to ensure that there are never two Snow Days in a row. For the youngsters.
Director: Chris Koch. Stars: Chris Elliott, Mark Webber, Jean Smart, Chevy Chase, Schuyler Fisk, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Zena Gray. CC, (MPAA rating: PG, 89 min.), Comedy, 2000, Box office gross: $59.993 million, (Paramount), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 10/3, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount

THOMAS AND THE MAGIC RAILROAD
Combination live-action and animation big screen production based on the delightful children's TV series and books. The story line -- which, like the TV series jumps between the human world of the Shining Time Station and the animation of the island of Sodor, where Thomas and his friends chug in a happy railroad land -- has a group of diesel locomotives seeking to close the route between the two worlds in their search for a missing steam engine. For preschoolers.
Director: Britt Allcroft. Stars: Alec Baldwin, Peter Fonda, Russell Means, Didi Conn. CC, (MPAA rating: G, 85 min.), Children, 2000, Box office gross: $15.120 million, (Columbia TriStar), $22.96 SRP, Available: 10/31, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount

U-571
Exciting WWII submarine adventure about the crew of a vintage WWI sub pressed into action to beat a German sub to capture the damaged U-571, a U-boat that contains the Enigma device, a secret German coding machine the Allies need to decipher German naval movements. The action gets hot and heavy as the Americans take over the German sub but find themselves stranded in hostile waters when their sub is torpedoed. Traditional -- and wonderfully tension-mounting -- undersea action.
Director: Jonathan Mostow. Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel, Jon Bon Jovi, David Keith, Thomas Kretschmann. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 116 min.), War action, 2000, Box office gross: $76.400 million, (Universal), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 10/3, DVD: October 24. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount

All films are screened using the DVD version, when available, on a reference Onkyo DV-S717 DVD player.

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September 15, 2000