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Video / DVD

New releases

Soon to be on the shelves

By Times Staff Writer
Published June 9, 2005

BE COOL

DIRECTOR: F. Gary Gray

CAST: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Vince Vaughn, Cedric the Entertainer, Harvey Keitel, Christina Milian, the Rock, Andre Benjamin, Steven Tyler, Danny DeVito

SYNOPSIS: Get Shorty's hero, Chili Palmer (Travolta), shifts from making movies to music, tangling with gangsta rappers, the Russian mafia and annoying rivals (Vaughn, Keitel).

WHAT WE SAID: Times film critic Steve Persall gave the movie a C. "Trying too hard to be cool is the easiest way to convince everyone you aren't. Even an unflappably smooth operator such as Chili Palmer loses his mojo amid the strained coolness of Be Cool, an unfocused, seldom funny sequel to Get Shorty," he wrote.

MPAA RATING: PG-13; profanity, violence, sexual situations

RUNNING TIME: 120 min.

DIRECTOR: Kevin Spacey

CAST: Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, John Goodman, Bob Hoskins, Brenda Blethyn, Greta Scacchi, Caroline Aaron

SYNOPSIS: Kevin Spacey stars as crooner Bobby Darin.

WHAT WE SAID: Persall gave the movie a B-. "Spacey's devotion to bringing the life of Bobby Darin to the screen is admirable, his ability to imitate the pop star's voice and mannerisms even more so," Persall wrote. "Yet, Beyond the Sea never gets beyond its problems, most obviously Spacey in the role of a man nearly half the actor's age. Spacey's a fine song-and-dance man, but he isn't a magician."

MPAA RATING: PG-13; profanity, sensuality

RUNNING TIME: 121 min.

DIRECTOR: Angela Robinson

CAST: Sara Foster, Jordana Brewster, Devon Aoki, Jill Ritchie, Meagan Goode, Michael Clarke Duncan, Holland Taylor, Geoff Stults, Jimmi Simpson, Jessica Cauffiel, Ryan Xavier, Michael Mastro

SYNOPSIS: Crime-fighting hotties join an underground academy of secret agents.

WHAT WE SAID: The Times did not review this movie.

MPAA RATING: PG-13; sexual content and language

RUNNING TIME: 91 min.

DIRECTOR: Brad Anderson

CAST: Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, John Sharian, Michael Ironside, Matthew Romero, Larry Gilliard, Anna Massey

SYNOPSIS: An insomniac sinks deeper into psychosis.

WHAT WE SAID: Persall gave the film a B+. "A truly frightening performance by Christian Bale is the main attraction in Brad Anderson's psycho-thriller, although The Machinist has much more going for it than that. Bale's 63-pound weight loss to play Trevor Reznik, an insomniac on the edge of insanity, left him shockingly skeletal, making Reznik appear so dangerous to himself that there's no telling what he's capable of doing to anyone else," Persall wrote. "The Machinist isn't in Hitchcock's league, but it's closer than a lot of films claiming to be."

MPAA RATING: R; violence and disturbing images, sexuality and language

RUNNING TIME: 102 min.

DIRECTOR: Don Mancini

CAST: Jennifer Tilly, Redman, John Waters, Hannah Spearritt; voices of Tilly, Brad Dourif, Billy Boyd

SYNOPSIS: The devil doll from Child's Play is back, terrorizing in a movie-within-the-movie about his murderous life. Jennifer Tilly co-stars as the voice of Chucky's wife and herself, a Hollywood star resorting to jobs in films about devil dolls.

WHAT WE SAID: Times reviewer Rick Gershman gave the movie an F-. "Nobody should expect art from this, the fifth film in the Child's Play killer doll franchise," he wrote. "But this could very well be the worst movie ever released by a major studio. Not just the worst Chucky flick. Not just the worst film of 2004. Worst ever."

MPAA RATING: R; strong horror violence/gore, sexual content and language

RUNNING TIME: 90 min.

DIRECTOR: Jonathan Demme

CAST: Jean Dominique, Aboudja, Ronald Reagan

SYNOPSIS: The late Haitian radio activist Jean Dominique is profiled by director Demme (The Silence of the Lambs, Stop Making Sense), who interviewed Dominique throughout the 1990s. Dominique's bold personality overshadows the nation's tragic politics.

WHAT WE SAID: Persall gave the film a B. "The filmmaker's fascination with the rabble rouser, who was assassinated in 2000, overmatches his grasp of the political turmoil his subject vented against," Persall wrote. "The result is a biography of an arresting personality with more important issues - possibly Dominique, as much an egoist as an altruist, would disagree - tossed aside."

MPAA RATING: PG; brief profanity and violent images

RUNNING TIME: 90 min.

[Last modified June 8, 2005, 10:19:02]