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Video / DVD

New releases

A look at what's hitting the shelves

By Times Staff
Published December 29, 2005

Dark Water

DIRECTOR: Walter Salles

CAST: Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly, Tim Roth, Dougray Scott, Pete Postlethwaite, Ariel Gade, Camryn Manheim

SYNOPSIS: A recently divorced mother (Connelly) and her daughter inhabit an apartment haunted by a former resident's ghost. Based on the 2002 film Honogurai Mizu No Soko Kara.

WHAT WE SAID: St. Petersburg Times reviewer Rick Gershman gave the movie a B-. "Talented Brazilian director Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries) takes the material too seriously, though he gets excellent performances from Connelly, Reilly and the young Gade," he wrote. "Dark Water is a little too arty and deliberate to be enjoyed as a horror film, but too inconsequential to hold up as a psychological drama. For all its pedigree, it's an impressive near-miss."

MPAA RATING: PG-13; mature themes, frightening sequences, disturbing images, brief language

RUNNING TIME: 105 min.

DIRECTOR: Werner Herzog

CAST: Timothy Treadwell, Amie Huguenard, voice of Werner Herzog

SYNOPSIS: Werner Herzog's mesmerizing documentary of the life of Timothy Treadwell and his death by bear mauling in Alaska.

WHAT WE SAID: Times film critic Steve Persall gave the film an A. "Two years ago, Treadwell and Huguenard were mauled and mostly eaten by one of the Alaskan grizzly bears he considered as family. Which bear doesn't matter, and the motive is primordially obvious," he wrote. "The mystery propelling Grizzly Man is why Treadwell gladly placed himself in a situation so unavoidably fatal, and why whatever he learned during 13 summers living among grizzlies didn't save him. It boils down to a persona the likes of which moviegoers haven't seen, revealed by Treadwell's own video footage, expertly blended by Herzog with postmortem interviews."

MPAA RATING: R; harsh profanity, grisly images

RUNNING TIME: 103 min.

DIRECTOR: Wong Kar Wai'

CAST: Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Ziyi Zhang, Chang Chen, Faye Wong

SYNOPSIS: Wong Kar Wai's lovely but confused sequel of sorts to In the Mood for Love, with the same author (Tony Leung) faring better with his sex life.

WHAT WE SAID: Times film critic Steve Persall gave the film a C+. "Wong Kar Wai's 2001 release, In the Mood for Love, was a tough movie for me to like, a drama of romantic obsession chiefly set in adjacent hotel rooms where two people avoided each other's affection. If Wong thinks he's clarifying that film with this navel-gazing companion piece, he's dead wrong," he wrote. "People who embraced the previous movie may have an advantage in appreciation and understanding here. And if you didn't see the first one, you'll probably give up on 2046 halfway through."

MPAA RATING: R; sexual situations, profanity.

RUNNING TIME: 123 min.

DIRECTOR: Meiert Avis

CAST: Pell James, Steven Strait, Kip Pardue, Shannon Sossamon, Fisher Stevens, Carrie Fisher, Peter Weller, Stephen Moyer, Ashlee Simpson

SYNOPSIS: Aspiring pop singers in Los Angeles can't get a break. Recording star Ashlee Simpson co-stars in her first major film role

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

MPAA RATING: PG-13; sexual material including dialogue, partial nudity, language and drug content

RUNNING TIME: 100 min.

DIRECTOR: John Stockwell

CAST: Paul Walker, Jessica Alba, Josh Brolin, Dwayne Adway, Scott Caan, Ramon Saunders, Ashley Scott, James Frain

SYNOPSIS: Walker and Alba go scuba diving and run afoul of drug smugglers in the Bahamas.

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

MPAA RATING: PG-13; intense sequences of action violence, drug material, some sexual content and language

RUNNING TIME: 110 min.

[Last modified December 28, 2005, 09:18:06]