What's New

L.A. Times Archives

Feb. 22, 2001 12 AM PT

Beautiful (2000). Minnie Driver glows in the title role of a small-town Illinois perennial beauty contestant whose single-minded determination begins to pay off but in unexpected ways. Writer Jon Bernstein and debuting feature director Sally Field eschew easy satire for the wiser and more compassionate view that beauty pageants offer many young women of limited opportunities and alternatives their best hope, realistic or not, of attaining a better life. With Hallie Kate Eisenberg, Joey Lauren Adams and Kathleen Turner. Columbia: no list price; DVD: $24.95; (CC); PG-13, for language and thematic elements.

Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000). A fake spawned by a more successful fake, this conventional scare-fare sequel to the highly successful independent film was doomed to be inconsequential and forgettable, and it is. Artisan: no list price; DVD: available March 13, $24.98; (CC); R, for violence, language, sexuality and drug use.

Butterfly (2000). A beautiful evocation of deceptively idyllic life in an ancient Galician village about to be swept up in the Spanish Civil War, starring the great Fernando Fernan-Gomez. In Spanish with English subtitles. Miramax/Buena Vista: no list price; DVD: $32.99; (CC); R for one strong sex scene.

Highlander: Endgame (2000). The “Highlander” series comes to an end with plenty of panache, after much carnage and plot murkiness. “Highlander” TV series star Adrian Paul joins Christopher Lambert for the big showdown with their evil archenemy (Bruce Payne). Buena Vista: no list price; DVD: $29.99; (CC); R, for violence and some strong sexuality.

The Watcher (2000). A meticulously crafted but resolutely routine serial-killer suspense thriller that’s neither very suspenseful nor particularly thrilling. James Spader is a burned-out FBI agent all but destroyed by trying to nab Keanu Reeves’ elusive strangler, and Marisa Tomei is Spader’s empathetic therapist. It’s one of those you’ve-seen-it-all-before movies. Universal: no list price; DVD: $26.98; (CC); R for violence and language.

Wonderland (2000). A loving group portrait of a South London working-class family. What its members experience in the course of an event-filled weekend celebrates resilience of the human spirit. Universal: no list price; DVD: $24.98; (CC); R for some strong sexuality, and for language.

What’s Hot

* Last week’s Top 5 VHS rentals:

1. “What Lies Beneath” (2000). A suspense thriller with a brisk succession of bump-in-the-dark moments shoe-horned into an old-fashioned, dark-and-stormy-night ghost story. Spooky with a polished kind of creepiness added by director Robert Zemeckis, it nevertheless feels more planned than passionate, scary at points but unconvincing overall. Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer star. PG-13, for terror/violence, sensuality and brief language.

2. “Disney’s the Kid” (2000). More cloyingly sentimental and unyieldingly cute than it needs to be, the film has more potential interest than might be imagined thanks to Audrey Wells’ script. The concept, that 8-year-old Rusty (Spencer Breslin) is as disappointed in the adult he has become as Russ (Bruce Willis) is in the child he was, is a clever one. It’s a movie we might like to buy into if left to our own devices, but that idea is anathema to director Jon Turtletaub, intent on pushing us so hard that we end up pushing back. Emily Mortimer co-stars. PG, for mild language.

3. Me, Myself and Irene (2000). Jim Carrey has his moments as a Rhode Island state policeman whose two personalities are in love with Renee Zellweger, but this Farrelly brothers comedy lacks the warmth that made “There’s Something About Mary” such a hit. Strictly for the hard-core, gross-out crowd. R, for sexual content, crude humor, strong language and some violence.

4. “Coyote Ugly” (2000). It’s a bad movie--but it’s not one of those fiascoes that leaves you in a foul mood. A small-town innocent (Piper Perabo) moves to New York to follow her dream of becoming a songwriter in this combination of sentimental romance and carefully sanitized raunch. Adam Garcia and Maria Bello star. PG-13, for sensuality.

5. “Dr. T & The Women” (2000). Sparkling and wise romantic comedy from Robert Altman and his “Cookie’s Fortune” screenwriter Anne Rapp in which Richard Gere, in a part that suits him to a T, as the most popular gynecologist in Dallas whose undoing is, ironically, putting women on a pedestal. Helen Hunt, Farrah Fawcett, Laura Dern, Kate Hudson, Tara Reid and Shelley Long are the key women in his life. R, for graphic nudity and some sexuality.

* Last week’s Top 5 DVD rentals:

1. “What Lies Beneath”

2. “Me, Myself and Irene”

3. “Coyote Ugly”

4. “Urban Legends: Final Cut” (2000). This killer-stalks-the-campus retread, directed by John Ottman from a script by Paul Harris Boardman and Scott Derrickson, is exactly the kind of flat-footed stalker film that the recent trend-setting hits in the genre have been making fun of. R, for violence/gore, language and some sexuality.

5. “Disney’s the Kid”

Last week’s Top 5 VHS sellers:

1. “Dinosaur” (2000). This computer-animated tale of a brave orphaned iguanadon is a technical amazement that points computer-generated animation toward the brightest of futures but is also cartoonish in the worst way, the prisoner of pedestrian plot points and childish, too-cute dialogue. (Turan, May 19) PG for intense images.

2. “Digimon: The Movie” (2000). The Digital monsters of TV take to the big screen, with all the requisite noise and product promotion. Diginemic. Screenplay by Jeff Nimoy and Bob Bucholz. Animation direction by Takaaki Yamashita, Hisashi Nakayama and Masahiro Aizawa. G.

3. “The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Thomas Harris’ harrowing, mesmerizing book concerned an institutionalized psychopath who is used to identify a serial killer. In a fine adaptation, director Jonathan Demme and screenwriter Ted Tally have focused on a duel of wits and wills between Jodie Foster’s young FBI trainee and that paradigm of evil, Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins). Although Demme does not dwell on the gore, it’s definitely there, making it a film not for the faint of heart. R.

4. “Left Behind” (2000). Kirk Cameron stars.

5. “Shirley Temple Gift Set”

* Last week’s Top 5 DVD sellers:

1. “Dinosaur”

2. “What Lies Beneath” (2000).

3. “Me, Myself and Irene”

4. “Gladiator” (2000). Director Ridley Scott’s latest is a supremely atmospheric film that shrewdly mixes traditional Roman movie elements --like senators in carefully pressed togas and fighters who say, “We who are about to die salute you”--with the latest computer-generated wonders. Russell Crowe is commanding as the heroic gladiator Maximus, but the movie--too long at 2 1/2 hours--is not as nimble outside the arena as inside. R, for intense graphic combat.

5. “Coyote Ugly”

What’s Coming

Tuesday: “Bedazzled,” “Bootmen,” “The Fantasticks,” “Humanite,” “Lost Souls,” “Nurse Betty,” “The Original Kings of Comedy” and “The Tic Code.”

March 6: “The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy,” “The Contender,” “The Little Vampire” and “Rear Window.”

March 13: “Almost Famous,” “The Bridge,” “The Crew,” “The Legend of Drunken Master,” “The Sixth Day,” “Urbania” and “Wonder Boys.”

March 20: “Dancer in the Dark,” “Lucky Numbers,” “Remember the Titans,” “Requiem for a Dream,” “The Tao of Steve” and “Turn It Up.”

March 27: “Charlie’s Angels,” “Girlfight,” “Red Planet,” “Rugrats in Paris: The Movie” and “Once in the Life.”

April 3: “Legend of Bagger Vance” and “102 Dalmatians.”

April 10: “Men of Honor” and “What’s Cooking.”

April 17: “Bamboozled,” “Billy Elliot” “The Ladies Man” and “Tigerland.”

April 24: “Just Looking,” “Little Nicky,” “One Day in September.”

May 1: “All the Pretty Horses.”