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Video / DVD

New releases

A look at what's hitting the shelves

By Times Staff
Published February 9, 2006

DIRECTOR: Andrzej Bartkowiak

CAST: Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson, Karl Urban, Rosamund Pike, Raz Adoti, Al Weaver, Deobia Oparei, Richard Brake, Yao Chin and Ben Daniels

SYNOPSIS: The video game that revolutionized the industry becomes a movie.

WHAT WE SAID: Times reviewer Chase Squires gave the movie an F. "Video gamers are not stupid," he wrote. "Modern games challenge them intellectually with plots and tactics that are deep and interwoven. Doom, the movie, misses that. Nothing in the film makes sense, and nothing is clear. Except that Hollywood will continue to lose ground to video games that don't treat gamers like mushrooms."

MPAA RATING: R; gore, language

RUNNING TIME: 100 min.

DIRECTOR: Cameron Crowe

CAST: Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst, Susan Sarandon, Judy Greer, Bruce McGill, Alec Baldwin, Jessica Biel, Gailard Sartain, Paul Schneider

SYNOPSIS: A failed shoe designer (Bloom) visits his dead father's hometown while slowly falling in love with a flight attendant (Dunst).

WHAT WE SAID: St. Petersburg Times film critic Steve Persall gave the movie a C. "Everything that makes a Cameron Crowe movie worth anticipating is overdone in Elizabethtown," he wrote. "The wall-to-wall pop music is too meaningful, the screwball comedy too screwy, and there's so much straining for whimsy that the screen seems to bend into a forced smile."

MPAA RATING: PG-13; profanity, brief sexual content

RUNNING TIME: 123 min.

DIRECTOR: Marco Tullio Giordana

CAST: Luigi Lo Cascio, Alessio Boni, Adriana Asti, Sonia Bergamasco, Fabrizio Gifuni, Maya Sansa

SYNOPSIS: The movie tells the stories of two Italian brothers from the '60s to the present. In Italian with English subtitles.

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

MPAA RATING: R; language and brief nudity

RUNNING TIME: 366 min.

DIRECTOR: Mark Waters

CAST: Reese Witherspoon, Mark Ruffalo, Jon Heder, Donal Logue, Rosalind Chao, Dina Waters, Ben Shenkman

SYNOPSIS: A lifeless woman (Witherspoon) haunts her former apartment, now occupied by a hunky architect (Ruffalo).

WHAT WE SAID: Persall gave the film a D-. "Let's forget the routine mechanics, sitcom-level performances, cheap special effects and lazy screenwriting that could make Just Like Heaven merely a mediocre movie," he wrote. "Let's go straight to the reason why it's downright lousy: This is an alleged "romantic comedy' echoing the distinctly unromantic, unfunny Terri Schiavo case ... Unlike Patrick Swayze's character in (Ghost), the ill-fated Elizabeth Masterson (played by Reese Witherspoon) isn't dead; she's comatose, and everything "romantic' and "comedic' hinges upon whether her family will agree to cut off life support."

MPAA RATING: PG-13; sexual references, brief profanity

RUNNING TIME: 95 min.

DIRECTOR: Dave McKean

CAST: Stephanie Leonidas, Gina McKee, Rob Brydon, Jason Barry, Dora Bryan

SYNOPSIS: The daughter (Leonidas) of circus performers enters a fantasy kingdom reflecting the hardships of her life.

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

MPAA RATING: PG; mild thematic elements and scary images

RUNNING TIME: 101 min.

DIRECTOR: Rob McKittrick

CAST: Ryan Reynolds, Luis Guzman, Justin Long, Anna Faris, David Koechner, Chi McBride, John Francis Daley

SYNOPSIS: One day in the disgusting lives of happy-face restaurant workers.

WHAT WE SAID: Persall gave the movie an F. "Rob McKittrick's movie about inhospitable hospitality workers looks cheap and plays the audience cheaper with a script cribbed from bathroom walls," he wrote. "Not a single character is likable, and each joke is gross and mean-spirited, so relating to anyone is impossible. That is, unless you actually work at a restaurant populated with people like this, in which case, your laughter makes me queasy about dining out any time soon."

MPAA RATING: R; pervasive crude humor, harsh profanity and sexual content

RUNNING TIME: 96 min.

DIRECTOR: Nick Park, Steve Box

CAST: Voices of Peter Sallis, Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes, Nicholas Smith

SYNOPSIS: Nick Park's award-winning duo make their feature film debut. Nominated for an Academy Award for best animated film.

WHAT WE SAID: Persall gave the movie an A. "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is a start-to-finish delight, a silly horror movie spoof, as the title suggests, and as perfectly conceived as Park's fans expect," he wrote. "Seeing the earlier Wallace & Gromit short films isn't necessary for newcomers; renting or buying them later will be a temptation."

MPAA RATING: G; mild suggestive humor

RUNNING TIME: 85 min.

[Last modified February 8, 2006, 09:04:06]