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Video / DVD

New releases

A look at what's headedto the video shelves

By Times Staff
Published January 26, 2006

The Aristocrats

DIRECTORS: Paul Provenza, Penn Jillette

CAST: About 100 comedians, including Jason Alexander, George Carlin, Tim Conway, Andy Dick, Phyllis Diller, Whoopi Goldberg, Eddie Izzard, Penn Jillette, Bill Maher, Martin Mull, Emo Philips, Kevin Pollak, Don Rickles, Chris Rock, Bob Saget, Jon Stewart, Rip Taylor, Carrot Top, Fred Willard and Robin Williams

SYNOPSIS: Nearly 100 comedians take turns telling and analyzing the filthiest joke in the history of comedy.

WHAT WE SAID: St. Petersburg Times film critic Steve Persall gave the movie an A-. "Brace yourself for what may be the dirtiest movie ever, and one of the funniest of 2005. Everything you've read about The Aristocrats' no-holds-barred language is true, but you haven't heard anything yet," he wrote. "The Aristocrats, for all its smut, is the best argument for freedom of speech anyone could imagine. Or at least the most hilarious."

MPAA RATING: Not rated; probably NC-17

RUNNING TIME: 89 min.

DIRECTOR: Robert Schwentke

CAST: Jodie Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Sean Bean, Marlene Lawston and Erika Christensen

SYNOPSIS: Panic at 35,000 feet when a mother (Foster) awakens on an airliner and her daughter's missing. A sky marshal (Sarsgaard) is convinced the girl was already dead and never boarded the plane.

WHAT WE SAID: Times reviewer Philip Booth gave the movie a B. "Flightplan initially appears as if it might be headed to supernatural or sci-fi terrain, a la last year's The Forgotten, another film about a woman who is asked to believe that her child never existed," he wrote. "That suspicion is bolstered by the oddly placed flashbacks and eerie images - a foggy cobblestone road dotted with street lamps, menacing glances from strangers - that front load the film, built on a taut screenplay co-written by Billy Ray. The movie, fortunately, travels down another path, becoming a psychological thriller that owes a thing or two to Alfred Hitchcock."

MPAA RATING: PG-13; violence, intense action

RUNNING TIME: 93 min.

DIRECTOR: Rupert Wainwright

CAST: Tom Welling, Maggie Grace, Selma Blair, DeRay Davis, Rade Serbedzija

SYNOPSIS: Remake of John Carpenter's 1980 creeper about a fishing village haunted by leprous sailor ghosts.

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

MPAA RATING: PG-13; violence, disturbing images and brief sexuality

RUNNING TIME: 90 min.

DIRECTOR: Roman Polanski

CAST: Barney Clark, Ben Kingsley, Jamie Foreman, Harry Eden, Leanne Rowe, Jeremy Swift

SYNOPSIS: Oscar-winning director Polanski (The Pianist, Chinatown) does his take on Charles Dickens' often-told tale of an orphan (Clark) corrupted by a thief (Kingsley).

WHAT WE SAID: Persall gave the movie a C+. "After two dozen film and television versions of Oliver Twist, wouldn't it make sense for Roman Polanski to put a different twist on Oliver's story? Set it in another time, a new context, anything except yet another CliffsNotes outline of Charles Dickens' novel on celluloid," he wrote. "Polanski plays it safe, which is to say dutifully dull, by staging Dickens' tale of child abuse and class conflict in a fashion that hasn't changed much since David Lean's 1948 adaptation. Polanski simply has better costumers and carpenters than Lean to fake 19th century London's grimy side. This is a superior rendition of the same old thing, but it's still the same old thing."

MPAA RATING: PG-13; child abuse, violence

RUNNING TIME: 130 min.

DIRECTOR: Mike Mills

CAST: Lou Pucci, Tilda Swinton, Vince Vaughn, Vincent D'Onofrio, Keanu Reeves, Benjamin Bratt, Kelli Garner, Chase Offerle

SYNOPSIS: An aimless teenager (Pucci) rebels against parents and school officials while breaking a childish habit.

WHAT WE SAID: Persall gave the movie a C+. "Nobody can blame 17-year-old Justin Cobb (Lou Pucci) for seeking the taste of security from his thumb. It's an infantile habit that's probably the fault of all those adults around Justin who haven't grown up," he wrote. "His father (Vincent D'Onofrio) stopped trying to succeed when his football career ended. His mother (Tilda Swinton) gushes like a schoolgirl at the thought of winning a cereal contest date with a handsome TV actor. Justin's debate teacher (Vince Vaughn) tries too hard to click with students, and the orthodontist (Keanu Reeves) who sees the results of Justin's thumb addiction speaks of Zen and understands zip. (With that cast), explain why Thumbsucker isn't more interesting. Aside from the thumb-sucking angle of Walter Kirn's novel, writer-director Mike Mills doesn't add anything new to the rebellious youth genre. Justin is just another bastard son of Holden Caulfield."

MPAA RATING: R; drug/alcohol use and sexuality involving teens, language and a disturbing image

RUNNING TIME: 96 min.

[Last modified January 25, 2006, 10:09:06]