New Videos Coming Out This Week
The new releases scheduled for September 18, 2001, include Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles, Driven, Someone Like You, Spy Kids, Startup.com, and The Widow of St. Pierre. Let's take a quick look at these videos/DVDs, along with additional releases of interest, and take a sneak peek at next week.
Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles
Tagline: "He heard there was wildlife in L.A. He didn't know how wild."
Length: 92 minutes
MPAA
Rating: PG for some language and brief violence.
As were Crocodile Dundee (1986) and Crocodile Dundee II (1988), Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles is a good-natured comedy starring Paul Hogan and Linda Kozlowski. This time around, Mick Dundee (Hogan), his girlfriend Sue Charlton (Kozlowski), and their young son leave the Australian town they live in and travel to Los Angeles so Sue can work there in her father’s news operation. In L.A. Sue gets involved in a news story about a shady movie studio that keeps turning out films that lose money, apparently as a cover for some kind of scam. To help Sue, Mick gets a job at the studio to try to figure out what’s going on. Most of the humor in Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles comes from the charismatic Paul Hogan reacting to the strangeness of L.A. and outsmarting the crooked hotshots at the movie studio.
Selected Special DVD Features:
Formats Available: The above information refers to the DVD; this film is also available on VHS.
Driven
Tagline: "Welcome to the Human Race."
Length: 116 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for language
and some intense crash sequences
Sylvester Stallone stars in this action movie about open-wheel auto racing. Jimmy Bly (Kip Pardue) is a young up-and-coming racecar driver who is challenging the current champ Beau Brandenburg (Til Schweiger). Owner Carl Henry (Burt Reynolds) calls veteran driver Joe Tanto (Stallone) out of retirement to team with Bly. The drivers then pursue the championship in races at cities around the world, and a plethora of spectacular crashes are shown. But the men have to contend with various babes as well. Brandenburg dumps his gorgeous girlfriend (Estella Warren), and Bly is attracted to her. Also, Tanto’s bitter ex-wife (Gina Gershon) is now with the driver he replaces, but dealing with her doesn’t keep Tanto from flirting with an attractive journalist (Stacy Edwards).
Selected Special DVD Features:
Formats Available: The above information refers to the DVD; this film is also available on VHS.
Someone Like You
Tagline: "The story about the one that got away and the one she never saw coming."
Length: 97
minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content including dialogue, and
for some language
This romantic comedy, which stars Ashley Judd, is based on the novel Animal Husbandry. Judd portrays Jane Goodale, a woman who reads an article stating that once a bull has mated with a cow, he will not mate with her again and will mate only with other cows. Soon Jane becomes sexually involved with a coworker (Greg Kinnear), but she is hurt when he dumps her. Jane then becomes platonic roommates with another coworker, Eddie Alden (Hugh Jackman), and she watches him bed a series of women. Along the way, Jane develops a theory that men treat women much the same way that bulls treat cows, and her theory becomes widely known through articles she publishes. But the movie goes on to show that, in spite of everything, there might be a man who’s right for Jane after all.
Selected Special DVD Features:
Formats Available: The above information refers to the DVD; this film is also available on VHS.
Spy Kids
Tagline: "Real Spies... only smaller."
Length: 88 minutes
MPAA Rating: Rated PG for action sequences.
Although aimed at children, Spy Kids is so inventive that it can be enjoyed by adults as well. Gregorio and Ingrid Cortez (Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino) are former spies who have two kids, Carmen (Alexa Vega) and Juni (Daryl Sabara). When Gregorio and Ingrid get into big trouble with the evil Fegan Floop (Alan Cumming) and his assistant Minion (Tony Shalhoub), Carmen and Juni have to try to rescue their parents. It turns out that Floop and Minion are involved in a conspiracy to create robotic children, and two of these look exactly like Carmen and Juni. The Cortez kids get some help from Ms. Gradenko (Teri Hatcher), who says she’s an old friend of their mother’s, but may not be what she claims.
Selected Special DVD Features:
Formats Available: The above information refers to the DVD; this film is also available on VHS.
Startup.com
Tagline: "The rise and fall of the American dream."
Length: 107 minutes
MPAA Rating:
R for language
This fascinating documentary chronicles the rise and fall of the Internet business founded by longtime friends Kaleil Isaza Tuzman and Tom Herman. Tuzman is the sales-oriented half of the team, while Herman brings more technical expertise to the venture. The heart of their idea is to establish a Web site where people can transact government business, such as paying parking tickets. Over several months Tuzman and Herman raise tens of millions of dollars in financing, and their company, which they call GovWorks.com, grows to have more than 200 people working for it. But the problems of successfully operating the business turn out to be insurmountable, the friendship between Tuzman and Herman becomes strained, and GovWorks.com eventually fails.
Selected Special DVD Features:
Formats Available: The above information refers to the DVD; this film is also available on VHS.
The Widow of St. Pierre
Length: 112 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for a scene of sexuality
and brief violence
Juliette Binoche and Daniel Auteuil star in this French-language drama directed by Patrice Leconte. In the 19th century, the Captain (Auteuil) is a French military officer stationed on the island of St. Pierre, where he lives with his wife Madame La (Binoche). When a local man named Neel Auguste (Emir Kusturica) commits a murder, he is sentenced to be beheaded. But St. Pierre has no guillotine -- called a "widow" in French slang -- and the execution is delayed for months while one is shipped there from far away. While awaiting the execution, a very odd relationship develops between Auguste, Madame La, and the Captain. Also, Auguste gradually wins the sympathy of the islanders, and by the time the guillotine arrives, a disagreement has arisen over whether the execution should be carried out or not.
Selected Special DVD Features:
Formats Available: The above information refers to the DVD; this film is also available on VHS.
Additional Releases of Interest
Basic Instinct - Unrated Director's Cut (1992)
Selected Special DVD Features:
Formats Available: The above information refers to the DVD; this film is also available on VHS.
Blood Simple - Director's Cut (1985)
Selected Special DVD Features:
Formats Available: The above information refers to the DVD; this film is also available on VHS.
Closely Watched Trains - Criterion Collection (1966)
Selected Special DVD Features:
Formats Available: The above information refers to the DVD; this film is also available on VHS.
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
Selected Special DVD Features:
Formats Available: The above information refers to the DVD; this film is also available on VHS.
Le Trou - Criterion Collection (1960)
Selected Special DVD Features:
Formats Available: The above information refers to the DVD; this film is also available on VHS.
Irma La Douce - (1963)
Selected Special DVD Features:
The Shop on Main Street - Criterion Collection (1965)
Selected Special DVD Features:
Total Recall - Collector's Edition (1990)
Selected Special DVD Features:
Formats Available: The above information refers to the DVD; this film is also available on VHS.
The Vanishing - Criterion Collection (1991)
Selected Special DVD Features:
Formats Available: The above information refers to the DVD; this film is also available on VHS.
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