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Video / DVD
New releases
A look at what's hitting the shelves
By Times Staff Writer
Published December 22, 2005
The Brothers Grimm
DIRECTOR: Terry Gilliam
CAST: Matt Damon, Heath Ledger, Jonathan Pryce, Lena Headey, Peter Stormare, Monica Bellucci
SYNOPSIS: The future fairy tale authors (Damon, Ledger) are inspired by supernatural events in Gilliam's wildly uneven fantasy.
WHAT WE SAID: St. Petersburg Times film critic Steve Persall gave the movie a C-. "This is the first Gilliam film that feels lazy and unoriginal, as if the filmmaker is grasping for the mass appeal that has eluded him," he wrote. "The movie establishes an interesting once-upon-a-time feel, then goes sloppily ever after."
MPAA RATING: PG-13; scary images, violence, brief sensuality
RUNNING TIME: 118 min.
Cry Wolf
DIRECTOR: Jeff Wadlow
CAST: Julian Morris, Lindy Booth, Jared Padalecki, Jon Bon Jovi
SYNOPSIS: Prep school students manufacture a campus legend about a serial killer, then begin dying at the hands of their creation.
WHAT WE SAID: The Times did not review this film.
MPAA RATING: PG-13; violence, terror, disturbing images, language, sexuality and a brief drug reference
RUNNING TIME: 98 min.
Four Brothers
DIRECTOR: John Singleton
CAST: Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese Gibson, Andre Benjamin, Garrett Hedlund, Terrence Howard, Josh Charles, Sofia Vergara, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Fionnula Flanagan
SYNOPSIS: Wahlberg, Benjamin, Hedlund and Gibson turn into vigilantes to find out who murdered their foster mother.
WHAT WE SAID: Persall gave the movie a C-. "No matter what kind of nastiness occurs in Four Brothers, the "heroes' can always say they're doing it for their foster mother, a kindly woman gunned down during a grocery store robbery," Persall wrote. "Whether that justifies torture, indiscriminate shootouts, burglary, reckless car chases and extreme vandalism becomes an ethics test that only other criminals could fail. Singleton made his name with Boyz N the Hood, a movie condemning street violence. Now he glorifies it, turning theaters into Roman coliseums where viewers are urged to turn thumbs down to almost everyone."
MPAA RATING: R; strong violence, harsh profanity, sexual content
RUNNING TIME: 106 min.
The Great Raid
DIRECTOR: John Dahl
CAST: Benjamin Bratt, James Franco, Connie Nielsen, Marton Csokas, Mark Consuelos, Joseph Fiennes
SYNOPSIS: The story of the heroic January 1945 rescue of 500 American POWs from a prison camp in the Japanese-occupied Philippines.
WHAT WE SAID: Times reviewer Philip Booth gave the film a C+
. "If The Great Raid were a History Channel special, it might be appropriate to beat a drum or two over the impressively photographed World War II period piece," he wrote. "As a theatrical release, though, the $80-million production leaves a lot to be desired. Unfortunately, the whole project feels like a patriotic history lesson, worthwhile for viewers to know and understand, but overstuffed, overlong by at least 20 minutes and often quite dull."
MPAA RATING: R; strong war violence and brief language
RUNNING TIME: 133 min.
Must Love Dogs
DIRECTOR: Gary David Goldberg
CAST: Diane Lane, John Cusack, Elizabeth Perkins, Christopher Plummer, Dermot Mulroney, Stockard Channing
SYNOPSIS: Lonely woman (Lane) relies on Internet dating services to find the man of her dreams (Cusack).
WHAT WE SAID: Times reviewer Marty Clear gave the movie a B+
. "It's witty and wonderfully acted, it bypasses most of the cliches of romantic comedy, and it avoids sappiness until the penultimate scene," he wrote. "There's chemistry to spare in every relationship in the film, especially in the scenes between Lane and Mulroney (as a temporary love interest) and between Lane and Channing (as a feisty divorcee who dates Plummer). Slight and cute, but also intelligent and well-crafted, Must Love Dogs is the kind of film that could give romantic comedies a good name."
MPAA RATING: PG-13; sexual content
RUNNING TIME: 100 min.
November
DIRECTOR: Greg Harrison
CAST: Courteney Cox, Anne Archer, James LeGros, Michael Ealy, Nora Dunn
SYNOPSIS: A photographer (Cox) grieves for her murdered lover, slipping into a funk where the line between reality and fantasy is blurred.
WHAT WE SAID: The Times did not review this movie.
MPAA RATING: R; violence and some language
RUNNING TIME: 73 min.
Rebound
DIRECTOR: Steve Carr
CAST: Martin Lawrence, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Breckin Meyer, Patrick Warburton, Megan Mullally, Horatio Sanz, Oren Williams, Steven Anthony Lawrence, Tara Correa
SYNOPSIS: A disgraced college basketball coach (Lawrence) volunteers to coach a ragtag junior high team. A pleasant change of pace for Lawrence, dropping his vulgar comedy for a fatherly, Eddie Murphy-style role.
WHAT WE SAID: Persall gave the movie a B-. "Rebound is a good title for Martin Lawrence's new movie, and not only because it's about basketball," he wrote. "It's also about time Lawrence got a decent bounce in his career after a string of critical and commercial flops."
MPAA RATING: PG; mild language, crude humor
RUNNING TIME: 93 min.
[Last modified December 22, 2005, 09:05:08]
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