Movies now on DVD
Mean Girls
(Movie: $\star \star$,
DVD: $\star \star$ 1/2)
PG.97 minutes
Oh, Lindsay Lohan. I admired you in The Parent Trap, lauded you in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen and then came Mean Girls. Penned by Saturday
Night Live's Tina Fey and littered with SNL alums, Mean Girls is different from the run-of-the-mill teenage girl comedy. Don't worry, Lohan changes outfits often and shows enough skin to keep the Britney generation
swooning,but the strengths lie in the writing. For that I praise Fey.
Cady (Lchan) is the new girl in school, having been home-schooled until now. She is 16 and entering the world of high school clueless of the way it works. After being introduced to The Plastics, the most popular, perfect looking and endlessly mean girls at her high school, she falls into their world.
The film is fine fluff with a bite, which I again attribute to Fey. The DVD has the standard extras including commentary by director Mark Waters, Fey and producer Lorne Michaels, bloopers, three featurettes, nine deleted scenes and a theatrical trailer. The extras are enough to satisfy the 13-year-old girls this film aims to please, but the calming and welcome presence of Tina Fey could aim to satisfy the rest of us as well.
— Lindsey Remsey
Jersey Girl
(Movie: ☆☆ 1/2,
DVD: ☆☆☆ 1/2)
PG,97 minutes
Kevin Smith's career as a writer and director is the quintessential story of American filmmaking over the last decade, during which the studios have embraced the independents to the point that they're all part of the same system. Smith has done creative work before in this environment, but with Jersey Girl he's gone completely mainstream. In order of preference, I'd rank his films as Clerks, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, this and then Mallrats.
To sate the appetite of his worshipful fan base, Smith's movies always get deluxe DVD treatment and Jersey Girl is no exception. The disc includes assorted behind-the-scenes features and a commentary track with Jay and his "hetero life mate," Silent Bob.
Stephen Shupe
The comedy-drama stars Ben Affleck as a successful music publicist who becomes a widower when wife Jennifer Lopez dies during childbirth. After years of undeserved criticism, Affleck no longer seems capable of taking himself or his art seriously enough to give a convincing performance. Smith's film turns increasingly maudlin as soon as the Jersey girl of the title (Raquel Castro) shows up. Still, it's filled with moments that ring true, and I'm also happy to report that Smith has disciplined himself as a filmmaker and made his first professional-looking film.
Stephen Shupe
Angels in America (Movie: $\star \star \star \star$,
DVD: $\star$)
For those of you who watched the Emmys and wondered, "What the hell is Angels in America?" the DVD's release will answer your questions. For those who have seen the impeccably produced miniseries, the release is an answer to your prayers.
Unrated, approx. 352 minutes
Director Mike Nichols of The Graduate fame has brought to life Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize winning play with grace and style. The controversial play and ministeries chronicles the early stages of the AIDS crisis in 1980s America. The interconnected stories follow a Mormon couple (Patrick Wilson and Mary-Louise Parker) as they deal with secrets and demons; the real-life lawyer Roy Cohen's(Al Pacino) secret battle with AIDS; a gay couple's (Ben Shankman and Justin Kirk) also battle's with AIDS within their relationship and, oh yeah, there are some angels.
The film itself is flawless. AI Pacino and Meryl Streep are at the top of their game and the newer actors such as Justin Kirk and Patrick Wilson hold their own. The DVD is devoid of any extras, which is disappointing. I would have loved to see how this fantastic play was translated so seamlessly to television. Perhaps later the gods of DVDs may grant us another edition with at least a commentary or two but for now, the film can speak for itself. Lindsey Ramsey
Excellent: Movies this great are rare, so don't miss it.
Good: At least worth the price of admission.
Okay: See it if you have nothing better to do.
Bad: If you absolutely have to see it, wait for the DVD.
no stars: Frickin' terrible; give us our two hours back,
you director from hell.
Star Wars DVD Collection
A New Hope(★★★)
A NEW HOPE
Star Wars: A New Hope might have launched one of the biggest movie franchises of all time, but when it was being made it was one risky proposition after another. This comes right out of the mouth of George Lucas, who is one of a few people on the commentary track for the first disc in the recently released DVD set. The commentary is full of insight about the context of the movie's era, like how risky a science fiction film was at the time and how much of an influence Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey was.
A New Hope, like the other movies in the DVD set, has been digitally restored and is sharper and better-looking than ever.
— Jon Ralston
The Empire Strikes Back(☆☆☆)
The greatest space opera of them all is also the darkest and best-written episode of the Holy Trilogy, thanks to a flawless script co-written by genre pro Lawrence Kasdan. Han and Leia's romance develops, while Luke meets Yoda and Darth Vader lets slip the family secret. The much-maligned alterations Lucas made when he re-released Star Wars as "special editions" in 1997 have little effect on Empire; they're mostly relegated to a few scenery shots of Cloud City, Lucas's new Star Wars films have been justly criticized, but they actually enhance this episode, which deals centrally with Darth Vader and grows in the imagination after you've seen his formative years in The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones.
—Stephen Shupe
Return of the Jedi
(☆☆☆1/2)
Stephen Shupe
The final installment of Star Wars is often criticized for being the weakest of the first trilogy. True, it doesn't have the energy of A New Hope or the ingeniousness of Empire but let us not forget Jabba
the Hutt and the gold bikini.
Now Jedi is where George Lucas' new tweakings get a little shady. To set the scene: The celebration at the end of the film is commencing, Luke has just torched the remains of his father and shots show the celebration around the galaxy. They have dropped in a small shot of Naboo celebrating here as well, that's fine. Then as the Ewoks dance, Luke is reunited with Leia and he gazes off into the distance. There stands Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Anakin Skywalker. Originally Sebastian Shaw depicted Anakin. But it seems poor old Sebastian has gotten the boot and now a beautiful image of Hayden Christensen is beaming down at his twins. Now Hayden, I love you, but I can understand where some might call this a sacrilegious move on Lucas' part. But what's done is done; it is Lucas' movie and although I may feel a twinge at the sight of Hayden replacing Sebastian (it could be annoyance or love for Hayden, I can't tell) I will accept the DVD as the completion of a saga that has filled my life with joy and now I wait in earnest for the final chapter coming to a theater near you May 2005.
Lindsay Ramsey Empire of Dreams (★☆1/2)
The centerpiece of the extra material on the new Star Wars DVD set is the documentary Empire of Dreams. Don't try to watch it in one sitting. The interesting tidbits are buried in two and half hours of promotion and shallow reminiscing, although it is very thorough. The most striking aspect it illustrates about the first Star Wars is the quality of the collaborations. A new motion-control camera system had to be invented. A comparison of the first Star Wars' unorthodox editing compared to more traditionally edited sequences goes a long way to explain how a movie with such hammy acting and goofy dialog could be so involving.
16
Bob Ward
Jayplay 9.30.04