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By STEVE PERSALL
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 31, 2000
In this new Weekend feature, I'll recall what Times reviewers thought of this week's new video releases back when they were released on the big screen. Then I'll add any second thoughts about what they'll be like on video, and suggest who might want to rent them.
Oliver Stone tackles pro football in a flashy pileup of gridiron violence, hip-hop vibes and sports page topicality. Just not too topical, since NFL scandals of drug abuse, domestic violence and worse are curiously overlooked by the muckraker behind JFK and Platoon. Al Pacino yells a lot, leading a wasted all-star cast. (VHS, DVD)
First impression: "Any Given Sunday is unusually reluctant for an Oliver Stone movie . . . as if the NFL had final cut privileges. The macho factor will make (the film) popular, and the campy quotient will make it endure. It's just frustrating that a steamrolling offensive force such as Oliver Stone gets such excellent field position and punts anyway." (Reviewed 12/22/99.)
Second thoughts: The sideline dramatics are still laughable, but the frenetic game action packs a wallop even on television. A decent choice for boys-night-in viewing.
Rental audience: Anyone who can hum the Monday Night Football theme song.
Rent it if you enjoy: North Dallas Forty, Semi-Tough, ESPN.
Kim Basinger plays wildlife protector Kuki Gallmann, whose socialite life changed after a near-fatal car accident. She moves to Kenya with a vagabond husband (Vincent Perez) and faces more personal tragedies. (VHS, DVD)
First impression: "Kuki Gallmann dreamed of Africa. The rest of us can doze through her movie. If you don't know why she deserves attention, no clues are offered until a postscript reveals her conservationist work. She doesn't save anything during the film, as loved ones and wildlife keep dropping like tsetse flies." (Reviewed 5/5/00)
Second thoughts: Basinger's hope for this to be her Out of Africa breakthrough as a serious actor fell flat. Gallmann still accomplishes more good in two minutes than this movie does in two hours.
Rental audience: Fans of Basinger and African travelogs.
Rent it if you enjoy: Safari rides at Busch Gardens.
Industrial lubricant salesmen (Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito) try to score deals at a convention, but their born-again Christian protege (Peter Facinelli) finds an inside track to the prize financial catch. (VHS, DVD)
First impression: " . . . a sturdy thespian piece, an adaptation of a stage play rarely straying from a one-room set. Under these circumstances, the play and actors bringing it to life are the thing. (This) story of exasperated corporate lives has snappy dialogue and cagey character disintegrations to spare." (Reviewed 5/19/00)
Second thoughts: Understandably lost in multiplexes among splashier films. This one deserves a second chance on video, if only to see Spacey -- one of today's finest actors -- at work.
Rental audience: Those who agree with that last statement, plus anyone who enjoys good theater.
Rent it if you enjoy: Glengarry Glen Ross.
Abbie (Madonna) and Robert (Rupert Everett) have stunted love lives, straight and gay, respectively. One drunken night, they have sex and she becomes pregnant, raising the provocative issue of alternative parenthood. Another man (Benjamin Bratt) intrudes as a possible father figure. (VHS, DVD)
First impression: "The Next Best Thing is billed as an exploration of a modern American family. (The film) becomes a sketchy case study of two parents placing their own happiness above anything benefiting their child. Isn't there something more modern or American than that?" (Reviewed 3/3/00)
Second thoughts: John Schlesinger's movie deserved to flop in theaters as it did. There isn't anything to suggest a different reception on home video.
Rental audience: Madonna devotees; viewers misled by the film's chipper image in ads.
Rent it if you enjoy: Shanghai Surprise, Body of Evidence or any other Madonna flop.
New and noteworthy for digital players
Braveheart (R) -- Mel Gibson's 1995 Academy Award winner finally makes the transition to DVD, without enough extras to justify the wait.
The story of Scottish freedom fighter William Wallace is given customary wide-screen treatment, allowing viewers to see every inch of the vicious battle scenes. Chapter search allows viewers to skip the romantic and historical hokum to get there.
Gibson adds audio commentary explaining the logistics of filming such an epic. He's much more fun to hear speaking as a movie star than as a serious filmmaker. Two theatrical preview trailers are included, along with the making-of documentary, A Filmmaker's Passion.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day Ultimate Edition -- On the other hand, director James Cameron knows how to capitalize on DVD technology. The wide-screen format displaying his landmark action flick is just the beginning.
Cameron adds audio commentary from 26 members of the cast and crew, from Arnold Schwarzenegger to the most obscure special effects wizard. Biographies and filmographies are provided. Three making-of featurettes appear, along with preview trailers and photographs.
But, wait, there's more. You also get a copy of the Terminator 2 screenplay and more than 700 storyboards used to map out the action. Cameron's grandest stroke is including three versions of the film: theatrical length, the special edition (with 15 added minutes) and the extended special edition with five more never-before-seen minutes.
A year rarely passes now without some hot-ticket movie emerging from the Telluride Film Festival, from Louis Malle's My Dinner With Andre (1981) to last year's sleeper, The Straight Story
Telluride is where U.S audiences first learned the secret of The Crying Game (1992), and where David Lynch set Hollywood on its (severed) ear with the bizarre Blue Velvet (1986).
Billy Bob Thornton became a household name after Sling Blade wowed the festival in 1996. Holly Hunter's campaign for a best actress Oscar in The Piano (1993) also began at Telluride.
Foreign films uncovered in the Rockies have included eventual Oscar nominees/winners Cinema Paradiso (1989), Central Station (1998) and Farewell, My Concubine (1993).
Seeking more daring fare? Check out Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves (1996), the grim black comedy Happiness (1998), the media-murder satire To Die For (1995), or Atom Egoyan's hypnotic tragedy The Sweet Hereafter (1997).
Sept. 5: Any Given Sunday (DVD), A Summer's Tale (DVD), The Unknown Jonathan Winters (DVD), The Unknown Peter Sellers (DVD).
Sept. 12: Tweety's High Flying Adventure. (VHS)
Sept. 19: A Map of the World (DVD), Ready to Rumble (DVD), Tales of the Kama Sutra (DVD).
Sept. 26: Molokai (VHS), Final Destination (VHS), Black and White (DVD).