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Times Staff WriterA look at what's new in the video/DVD world
Matrix Revolutions
DIRECTORS: Larry Wachowski, Andy Wachowski
CAST: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Jada Pinkett Smith, Mary Alice, Monica Bellucci, Nona Gaye, Ian Bliss, Sing Ngai, Bruce Spence
SYNOPSIS: The Wachowski brothers' trilogy concludes with a blow-'em-up showdown between the rebels and the Machine Army.
WHAT WE SAID: Times film critic Steve Persall gave the film a C-, saying that the Wachowskis seem to have run out of ideas. "The war between minds and machines is over. The machines won," he wrote. "This third and hopefully final episode of the Matrix series is a numbing disappointment, even for those of us who held faith through The Matrix Reloaded last spring. . . . Oh, how we long for a return to the thrilling days of the original Matrix, when Neo (Reeves) was an ordinary man in an increasingly impersonal world. Someone we could relate to, before he became a superhero messiah and someone we cannot."
MPAA RATING: R; violence, profanity, brief sexuality
RUNNING TIME: 129 min.
DVD FEATURES: Documentaries, games, a 3-D time line, photo gallery.
Cheaper by the Dozen
DIRECTOR: Shawn Levy
CAST: Steve Martin, Bonnie Hunt, Hilary Duff, Tom Welling, Piper Perabo, Ashton Kutcher
SYNOPSIS: A remake of the 1950 classic, this time starring Martin and Hunt as parents of 12 children.
WHAT WE SAID: Persall also gave this film a C-. "Two things the movie update of Cheaper by the Dozen has in common with its 1950 predecessor: the title and the number of children shared by a married couple. After that, it's all downhill to the lowest common denominator of family entertainment. . . . If you've seen the ad, you've seen it all: Comedy by chaos, all stampeding kids and scrambled eggs on the ceiling. Martin mugging for the camera while playing pratfall guy. Some warm fuzzies and the convenient crises punctuated by kid mischief. Paint-by-number entertainment, although the number is much higher than nuclear family averages."
MPAA RATING: PG; crude humor, mature themes
RUNNING TIME: 99 min.
Hope Springs
DIRECTOR: Mark Herman
CAST: Colin Firth, Minnie Driver, Heather Graham, Oliver Platt, Mary Steenburgen, Frank Collison
SYNOPSIS: An artist (Firth) gets dumped by his fiancee (Driver) and moves to a small Vermont town where a matchmaker (Steenburgen) unites him with a local beauty (Graham). But the ex-girlfriend may not be entirely out of the picture.
WHAT WE SAID: The Times did not review this film, which Disney gave only limited "test run" release in the fall.
MPAA RATING: PG-13; sexual content and language.
RUNNING TIME: 92 min.