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Video / DVD

New releases

A look at what's hitting the shelves

By Times Staff
Published November 3, 2005

Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith

DIRECTOR: George Lucas

CAST: Hayden Christensen, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Ian McDiarmid, Samuel L. Jackson, Jimmy Smits, Christopher Lee, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, voice of Frank Oz

SYNOPSIS: The saga concludes, inside-out, perhaps, but with all the loose ends braided into a rousing adventure. Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) steps over to the Dark Side and into the role of Darth Vader.

WHAT WE SAID: St. Petersburg Times film critic Steve Persall gave the movie an A-. "Revenge of the Sith should satisfy anyone not holding a grudge about The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. Darker, and almost operatic with its looming doom, it contains the payoffs that fans waited for. Foremost, we're finally reunited with the Darth Vader we loved to hate 28 years ago. It's a late meeting, but undeniably effective, the closest that any of the prequels has come to an indelible screen moment," he wrote. "There's less talk and more action than in the previous two installments, which should please the masses. There are more Wookiees, almost none of Jar Jar Binks, and absolutely no Ewoks. Above all, there's Darth Vader who, like Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, isn't on screen much yet hangs over the entire movie like a shroud. Lucas saved the best of his arguably needless prequels for last, finally justifying an entertainment empire, and cementing a myth."

MPAA RATING: PG-13; sci-fi violence, gruesome images, mature themes that include child murders

RUNNING TIME: 140 min.

DIRECTOR: Mark Rosman

CAST: Hilary Duff, Heather Locklear, Chris Noth, Mike O'Malley, Carson Kressley, Caroline Rhea, Aria Wallace

SYNOPSIS: A teenager (Duff) creates an imaginary admirer for her single mother (Locklear), then finds a man (Noth) to put a face on the ruse.

WHAT WE SAID: Persall gave the movie a C+. He wrote that the film is "so clean and sunny that complaining about its faults seems mean. . . . The Perfect Man sets its path, yet isn't afraid to make a few detours just to keep us on our toes. The performances are fine, the coincidences less bumpy than in most teen flicks, and convincing enough that when Holly (Duff) gets kissed, squealing girls in the theater are more amusing than annoying to middle-age ears. The movie isn't as polished and ambitious as The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, but it's a pleasant diversion for the same audience."

MPAA RATING: PG; brief suggestive humor

RUNNING TIME: 105 min.

DIRECTOR: Danny Boyle

CAST: James Nesbitt, Daisy Donovan, Lewis McGibbon, Alex Etel, Enzo Cilenti, Nasser Memarzia

SYNOPSIS: A fortune in British pounds is found by two boys, who fantasize about how they'll spend it before euros make the loot worthless.

WHAT WE SAID: Times reviewer Philip Booth gave the film an A-. He wrote that the movie, featuring a boy who sees and talks to saints, is "a surprisingly gentle, kid-friendly story from Danny Boyle, the Brit-born director of such edgy fare as Trainspotting and 28 Days Later." The motherless boy and his brother have just two weeks before the money becomes worthless. "The slightly overstuffed story includes a mysterious stranger and a potential love interest for the kids' lonely father," Booth wrote. "Boyle's charmer is capped with a larger, more astonishing magical event. But the director, unlike hack merchants of kid-oriented fare, doesn't ask viewers to accept anything that the story hasn't earned. Millions neither attacks consumerism nor suggests that the accumulation of wealth will solve any of life's problems, and the film's sweetness is lined with a biting reality that keeps it from turning saccharine. There's your miracle."

MPAA RATING: PG; thematic elements, language, some peril and mild sensuality

RUNNING TIME: 98 min.

DIRECTOR: Chris Terrio

CAST: Glenn Close, Elizabeth Banks, James Marsden, Jesse Bradford, Eric Bogosian, Isabella Rossellini, Matt Davis, George Segal, Rufus Wainwright, Andrew Howard, John Light, Denis O'Hare, Michael Murphy, Yolanda Ross

SYNOPSIS: A Broadway diva (Close) and her daughter (Banks) are at the center of an ensemble drama of romantic betrayal and sexual secrets.

WHAT WE SAID: Persall gave the film a B-. "The performances are uniformly good, with high marks for Close and especially Banks, whose days as a bit player in films such as Seabiscuit and the Spider-Man flicks should be over after this. Heights is an easy movie to appreciate for their scenes and some nicely worded dialogue," he wrote. "But we're left with the feeling that these people's lives are nothing like our own."

MPAA RATING: R; language, brief sexuality and nudity

RUNNING TIME: 93 min.

[Last modified November 2, 2005, 12:06:07]