Moscow on the Hudson (DVD)

Moscow on the Hudson (1984) starring Robin Williams, Maria Conchita Alonso, Cleavant Derricks. Williams plays a Russian saxophonist who comes to visit America with the Moscow Circus. While shopping in Bloomingdale's, just before time to catch the airplane back to the Soviet Union, he decides to defect. He is befriended and taken in by a security guard at the store (Derricks), and a sales clerk named Lucia (Alonso) provides the romantic interest. Note that the movie takes place in 1984, before the fall of the Soviet Union, so defection still had some meaning. I'm not a big Robin Williams fan, but in this film he is fine. Very good subtitles. Grade: B+

The More the Merrier (DVD)

The More the Merrier (1943) starring Jean Arthur, Charles Coburn, Joel McCrea. Set in Washington, D.C. during World War II -- there's a housing shortage, and a young civil servant (Arthur) ends up renting out half of her apartment to two men (Coburn and McCrea). I think it's supposed to play out as a screwball comedy, but then there's this wartime nonsense where the FBI gets involved, and it's rather tedious. Also, this disc lacks subtitles for the hearing-impaired. Grade: C

Moonstruck (DVD)

Moonstruck (1987) starring Cher, Nicolas Cage, Danny Aiello, Vincent Gardenia, Olympia Dukakis. Simply a delightful movie, set in New York, in which a 37-year-old woman (Cher) agrees to marry an older man (Aiello), but is irresistibly drawn to his younger brother (Cage). Makes great use of music and New York settings to set a mood of mild madness, in which anything can happen, and does. It makes you wish you lived in New York, so that you could visit Little Italy. Cher and Dukakis won Oscars for their performances. Good subtitles. Grade: A

Moonlight and Valentino (DVD)

Moonlight and Valentino (1995) starring Elizabeth Perkins, Whoopi Goldberg, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kathleen Turner. College professor Rebecca Lott (Perkins) loses her husband in a car accident. Characters played by Goldberg, Paltrow and Turner form her support group in her grief. But that's all academic, because this disc lacks subtitles for the hearing-impaired. Grade: F

Monsieur Hire (DVD)

Monsieur Hire (1989) starring Michel Blanc, Sandrine Bonnaire. French thriller in which a reclusive, middle-aged bachelor (Blanc) spies on his attractive young neighbor, Alice (Bonnaire) through her undraped windows. Meanwhile, a murder has been committed in the area and Monsieur Hire is a suspect. There are two mysteries: Who committed the murder, and why is Alice so friendly to Monsieur Hire? This is a very watchable movie that doesn't really have any slow patches. Good subtitles. Grade: A-

Monkey Business (DVD)

Monkey Business (1952) starring Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, Charles Coburn, Marilyn Monroe. Directed by Howard Hawks. Grant plays an absent-minded scientist named Barnaby who, while experimenting on chimpanzees, accidentally discovers a rejuvenating formula. Rogers plays Edwina, his adoring wife. After the formula gets dumped into the bottled water, both end up regressing at the same time, creating chaos in the boardroom at the company where Barnaby works. Typical '50s fare features clever writing, some funny lines and situations. The subtitles are the good kind -- yellow to stand out against the black-and-white film. Grade: B

Monkey Business (DVD)

Monkey Business (1931) starring Groucho, Chico, Harpo and Zeppo Marx. The four brothers stow away on an ocean liner. Constantly pursued by the crew, they interact in typically wacky fashion with the passengers they run into -- and with each other. Groucho flirts with a gangster's wife, Chico plays the piano, Harpo creates chaos wherever he goes, and Zeppo gets the girl -- in other words, it's a Marx Brothers movie. Grade: B+

Objectified (DVD)

Objectified (2009), documentary. This movie takes a look at how manufactured objects affect our lives, how they are designed and the thought processes that go into conceiving and making them. Unfortunately, what sounds like an interesting idea for a film ends up being largely a lot of talking heads telling us how they feel about design. It's not nearly as interesting as the concept sounds. Grade: B-

L'aventure C'est L'aventure (DVD)

L'aventure C'est L'aventure (1972) starring an all-French cast. A gang of five criminals decide that political crimes will be more profitable in the "current" climate, circa 1972. It's supposed to be a crime caper comedy, I think, but for me something has been lost in the translation. Strictly for Francophiles. Grade: C+

Mona Lisa (DVD)

Mona Lisa (1986) starring Bob Hoskins, Cathy Tyson, Michael Caine, Robbie Coltraine. Directed by Neil Jordan. Hoskins plays a small-time hood named George who is given the job of driver for a high-priced call girl (Tyson); but his time in prison has left him out of touch with the outside world, and he's naive about the depths of depravity that have been reached by his former chums (including Caine). It's definitely adult entertainment. The various English accents, especially Hoskins', are hard to understand -- which makes the subtitles for the hearing-impaired indispensable. Grade: B+

Traffik (DVD)

Traffik (1989) starring a cast of unknowns. Dramatic British miniseries which follows the heroin trade from the slums of Karachi, Pakistan to the halls of British Parliament. Served as the inspiration for Steven Soderbergh's Oscar-winning film, "Traffic." Not bad, but not really worth reviewing, either.

Modern Times (DVD)

Modern Times (1936) starring Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard. The Little Tramp takes on a factory job in this classic, semi-silent comedy. After a nervous breakdown, he is told to take it easy and get some rest, but that proves difficult for the scamp. He soon ends up in jail, which he rather enjoys. Meanwhile, there is unrest among the numerous unemployed. Goddard plays a "gamin," and she and the Little Tramp team up soon after meeting. The film becomes somewhat episodic after that, but it's still worth seeing, and the laughs are numerous. Grade: B+

Drag Me to Hell (DVD)

Drag Me to Hell (2009) starring Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Dileep Rao, David Paymer. Directed by Sam Raimi. After denying a loan extension to an old woman, loan officer Christine Brown (Lohman) comes to believe she is under a Gypsy's curse. The viewer of this movie will believe it too, as Christine is yanked into the air, thrown against the wall, and has various bodily fluids spurt out of her or be vomited onto her. She also loses the big promotion she was after, which was the reason she turned down the loan extension in the first place. After she turns to a psychic (Rao) for help, the film takes a supernatural turn, then a ghoulish turn. For horror fans, it has a fittingly horrific ending. The subtitles are good enough. Grade: B

Moby Dick (DVD)

Moby Dick (1956) starring Gregory Peck, Richard Basehart, Leo Genn. Directed by John Huston. Peck stars as Captain Ahab, the one-legged whale hunter who seeks revenge on the great white whale which obsesses him. The whale-hunting scenes are terrible to behold, with the wanton slaughter of these great mammals which is portrayed. Worse, though, this disc lacks captions for the hearing-impaired. Grade: F

Gandhi (DVD)

Gandhi (1982) starring Ben Kingsley, Candice Bergen, Edward Fox, John Gielgud, Trevor Howard, John Mills, Martin Sheen. Sweeping epic of Mahatma Gandhi, who rose from obscure beginnings to free his nation of India from British rule. A moving and inspiring lesson in the power of non-violence and civil disobedience. Winner of eight Oscars, including Best Picture, Actor, Director, Screenplay. Kingsley is remarkable in the title role. Biggest flaw is extreme length, a bladder-buster at over three hours. Fortunately, the DVD can be stopped for bathroom and kitchen breaks. The second half drags a bit. Superb subtitles. Grade: A-

The Bridge on the River Kwai (DVD)

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) starring William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins. Directed by David Lean. In 1943 in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, a British colonel named Nicholson (Guinness) finds himself locked in a war of wills with the commandant of the camp. The British POWs have been commanded to build a railroad bridge, and -- after winning the initial skirmish with the Japanese commandant -- Colonel Nicholson decides that that is just what they will do. Meanwhile, an American POW (Holden) escapes and is reluctantly recruited by British commandos to go back on a mission to destroy the bridge. The movie won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. Main flaw is extreme length of almost three hours. The subtitles on the disc are good. Grade: A-

Beauty in Trouble (DVD)

Beauty in Trouble (2006) starring Ana Geislerova, Roman Luknar, Josef Abrham. An attractive young woman named Marcela lives in the Czech Republic and faces a difficult choice: Stay true to her husband (Luknar), who is in jail for car theft, or take a chance on a wealthy man (Abrham) who promises her a comfortable life, but one without passion. While she is deciding, she and her two young children are living with her mother and Marcela's creepy brother, who does everything he can to make their life miserable. Strangely enough, although the picture is in Czech with English subtitles, some of the songs on the soundtrack are in English. The subtitles are adequate, but I sense something has been lost in the translation from Czech to English. Grade: B

Mister Roberts (DVD)

Mister Roberts (1955) starring Henry Fonda, James Cagney, Jack Lemmon, William Powell. Fonda plays the title character, an officer stationed aboard a cargo ship stuck in the backwaters of World War II near the end of the war. He longs for the action of battle, but his tyrannical captain (Cagney) won't grant him a transfer. Lemmon won an Oscar for his performance as the irrepressible Ensign Pulver. Not surprisingly for a film made in 1955, this one shows its age -- but it still makes for an enjoyable evening of entertainment. The movie was enough of a hit that it was lampooned in Mad Magazine. The captions are adequate. Grade: B+

Frownland (DVD)

Frownland (Don't know) starring Who Cares. Unwatchable crap. Grade: F-

The Girlfriend Experience (DVD)

The Girlfriend Experience (2009) starring Sasha Grey. This is a low-budget film edited in a non-linear fashion using non-professional actors. It has no subtitles for the hearing-impaired, so I found it largely incomprehensible. Grade: F

Mission of the Shark (DVD)

Mission of the Shark: The Saga of the USS Indianapolis (1991) starring Stacy Keach, Richard Thomas, David Caruso. In 1945, after delivering the atomic bomb that would destroy Hiroshima, the USS Indianapolis is hit by a Japanese torpedo. The ship quickly goes down, and the surviving crew are left floating in the waters of the Philippine Sea. Because the ship's mission is classified, their rescue is delayed for five days. Not only must they battle dehydration and exhaustion, but sharks soon begin swarming around them. Some of the men behave heroically; others lose their minds. Over 800 die. It's all made more dramatic by the fact that it's a true story, stirringly told. Not bad for what was originally a TV movie. Good captions, too. Grade: B+

The Brothers Bloom (DVD)

The Brothers Bloom (2008) starring Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel Weisz, Robbie Coltrane, Rinko Kikuchi. Two brothers, a team of con men (Brody and Ruffalo) decide to take on one last mark -- an adventure-seeking heiress (Weisz). But the danger is, will the younger Bloom brother (Brody) fall in love with her? And if he does, will he be able to follow through with the con? There is plenty of humor, several switcheroos, and lots of love to go around in this movie, which is a lot of fun to watch. The subtitles on the disc are very good. Grade: B+

Un Coeur en Hiver (DVD)

Un Coeur en Hiver (1992) starring Daniel Auteuil, Emmanuelle Beart, Andre Dussollier. The title means "A Heart in Winter" in English. Two men, longtime partners in a violin-repair business, have worked together so long that they don't need words. When Maxime (Dussollier) falls for a young violinist (Beart), trouble brews when she finds herself attracted to Maxime's partner, Stephane (Auteuil). The trouble takes an unexpected turn, however. The movie turns out to be about Stephane, a man so emotionally closed off that he is unable to form bonds of friendship or love. His heart is the "heart in winter" of the title. As expected in a foreign film, the story takes unexpected turns that an American may find hard to understand. But it makes for fascinating viewing. Grade: B+

Miss Firecracker (DVD)

Miss Firecracker (1989) starring Holly Hunter, Mary Steenburgen, Tim Robbins, Alfre Woodard, Scott Glenn. Carnelle Scott (Hunter) longs to win the Miss Firecracker contest, so that she can leave her miserable life in a small southern town in a "blaze of glory." Hunter shines in the role, and this could have been a most enjoyable viewing experience -- if this disc did not lack the essential feature of subtitles for the hearing-impaired. I missed out on about half of the dialogue. Grade: Movie, B; DVD, F

The Mighty (DVD)

The Mighty (1998) starring Kieran Culkin, Elden Henson, Sharon Stone, Gena Rowlands, Harry Dean Stanton, Gillian Anderson, James Gandolfini, Meat Loaf. Physically afflicted but brilliant Kevin (Culkin) and mentally challenged Max (Henson), both seventh-graders, form an unlikely alliance against the creepy Dogtown Boys gang. Living in Kevin's fantasy world, they go on knightly quests together -- until Kevin's condition worsens and Max's father (Gandolfini) returns from prison. Then the real drama starts. What this movie lacks in believability, it makes up for in heart. The subtitles are very good. Grade: A-

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (DVD)

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944) starring Betty Hutton, Eddie Bracken, Williams Demarest, Brian Donlevy. Trudy (Hutton) goes to an all-night party "for the boys" (remember, this takes place during World War II) and ends up married -- and pregnant. Only trouble is, she can't remember what happened that night, because she drank too much "lemonade." She turns to her friend Norval (Bracken) who is all too willing to marry her, but she can't bring herself to "do that to him." Until she does. Directed by Preston Sturges. Grade: B

The Milky Way (DVD)

The Milky Way (1969) starring Paul Frankeur, Laurent Terzieff. Two men on a religious pilgrimage through France find their faith put to the test by the zealots and apostates they meet along the way. Directed by Luis Bunuel, who delights in making fun of organized religion and hypocrisy. It's a mystifying film, and there's a good Extra on the disc which helps explain what it's all about. But in general, it will be of interest only to theologians and film historians. Grade: B-

Mimic (DVD)

Mimic (1997) starring Mira Sorvino, Josh Brolin, Charles S. Dutton. Entomologist (Sorvino) saves New York City from mysterious plague by wiping out cockroach population. But the superbug she developed to destroy the roaches fails to be sterile, as planned, and returns with a life of its own -- and it's evolving. This movie is dark and creepy, a grimy, slimy scarefest -- not my kind of film, but fine for people who like that sort of thing. Grade: C+

State of Play (DVD)

State of Play (2009) starring Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Helen Mirren, Robin Wright Penn, Jason Bateman. When Congressman Stephen Collins' (Affleck) mistress dies in an apparent suicide, journalists Cal (Crowe) and Della (McAdams) spring into action to investigate. Cal soon begins to suspect a conspiracy, and as they dig deeper, they find a tangled web of deceit and murder. The last half-hour of the movie, however, feels rushed; and the denouement comes much too quickly. The movie was condensed from a British miniseries, and it definitely has the feeling of some pieces being left out. Good subtitles, though. Grade: B-

Trumbo (DVD)

Trumbo (2007), documentary. A portrait of Dalton Trumbo, successful Hollywood screenwriter who was blacklisted after refusing to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947. Trumbo's personal letters, archival footage, and interviews with his surviving contemporaries all figure in the mix. Interesting. Lacks captions for the hearing impaired. Grade: B

Mildred Pierce (DVD)

Mildred Pierce (1945) starring Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Ann Blyth. Mildred Pierce, divorcee (Crawford), goes from housewife to restaurant owner. She finds great success in the restaurant business, but loses control of her spoiled daughter, Veda (Blyth). The story comes wrapped in a murder mystery, which is resolved rather nicely. Crawford won an Oscar for her performance. The subtitles are OK, not the best. Grade: B+

Mighty Aphrodite (DVD)

Mighty Aphrodite (1995) starring Woody Allen, Helena Bonham Carter, Mira Sorvino. Allen plays Lenny, a sportswriter who, after he and his wife Amanda (Carter) adopt a child, becomes obsessed with trying to find (and get acquainted with) the birth mother. To his dismay, the birth mother (Sorvino) turns out to be a porn actress and hooker. Meanwhile, Lenny and Amanda are drifting apart as she spends more and more time working on an art gallery she is opening. Sorvino won an Oscar for her performance. I found it delightful. The subtitles are pretty good. Grade: A-

Midnight Run (DVD)

Midnight Run (1988) starring Robert De Niro, Charles Grodin, Yaphet Kotto, Joe Pantoliano. Bounty hunter Jack Walsh (De Niro) is offered $100,000 to bring in Jon Mardukas (Grodin), an accountant who embezzled $15 million from the mob and gave it to charity. One problem: They have to get from New York to Los Angeles in a few days, and Mardukas is afraid to fly. Second problem: Both the FBI and the mob want to get their hands on Mardukas. The movie is basically one long chase scene, salvaged only by the chemistry between De Niro and Grodin, which is pretty good. Grade: B-

Midnight Express (DVD)

Midnight Express (1978) starring Brad Davis, Irene Miracle, Bo Hopkins, Randy Quaid, John Hurt. Based on a true story. In 1970, American tourist Billy Hayes (Davis) tries to smuggle two kilos of hashish out of Turkey and gets caught. He is sentenced to four years in a Turkish prison for possession, which his Turkish lawyer assures him is a lenient sentence. After three and a half years in hellish conditions, with his sentence nearing its end, he learns that the prosecutor has appealed his sentence, and he is re-sentenced by the appeals court to 30 years in prison. Finally, at wit's end, he decides he must try to escape. It's virtually impossible not to get caught up in Billy's horrible fate, and to root for him as he goes through his ordeal. The subtitles are very good, although there are several stretches where Turkish is spoken and no subtitles are offered. Grade: B+

Scrubs (DVD)

Scrubs (2003), Season 3, Disc 3. Starring Zach Braff, Donald Faison, Sarah Chalke, Judy Reyes, John C. McGinley. Maybe it's not to everyone's taste, but this TV show makes me feel good every time I watch it. Each character on this series is quirky and funny in his or her own special way, and they all add up to a great ensemble. The show suffers a little bit from the stunt casting of this third season (Tara Reid, Michael J. Fox, Richard Kind), but it still manages to hold mostly true to its core of humor combined with serious insights about medical care. Grade: A

Superbad (DVD)

Superbad (2007) starring Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Bill Hader, Seth Rogen. Three high-school seniors (Hill, Cera and Mintz-Plasse), close to graduation, go on a quest to procure alcohol for a party to which they have been improbably invited. Their object: The girls of their dreams. The three friends get separated and end up in three different kinds of trouble. Mintz-Plasse, as McLovin, gets involved with a couple of clueless cops, played by Hader and Rogen. Hill and Cera, as best friends Seth and Evan, end up at an adult party, where they do not belong. I hate to admit it, but I liked this movie -- rude, crude and lewd as it is. Most of the crudeness is of language, there is no real nudity. The disc has extensive extras which, unfortunately, I did not have time to watch. The subtitles are very readable -- heavy yellow letters, the best kind. I can't recommend this movie to everyone, due to the extensive lewdness, but I did rather enjoy watching it. Grade: B

Blade Runner: The Final Cut (DVD)

Blade Runner: The Final Cut (1982) starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young. Set in 2019 in Los Angeles, "blade runner" Rick Deckard (Ford) is recalled from retirement to hunt down four replicants (humanoid robots) which have returned to Earth from the off-world colonies. This version of the movie is director Ridley Scott's preferred version, having been recut and remastered from the original. It dispenses with Deckard's voice-over and adds a dream sequence which suggests that Deckard himself may be a replicant. The visualization of a future, dystopian L.A. is stunning, and the soundtrack by Vangelis is a masterpiece. Some critics have panned this film for problems with the acting or the script, but it remains one of my favorite movies ever. Grade: A

2001: A Space Odyssey (DVD)

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) starring Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood. Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Black monoliths of unknown origin play a decisive but puzzling role in mankind's destiny. After one is discovered on the Moon, a manned mission is dispatched to Jupiter in search of other monoliths. Even though this movie is 40 years old, the scenes depicting activities in space and on the Moon are still pretty spectacular -- even though to our more experienced eyes they don't look "real." The whole series of events around the HAL-9000 computer on board the Jupiter mission is classic. My only complaints: The extreme length, at two and a half hours, of the movie; and its leisurely pacing. The light show near the end was a real head trip back in the '60s. The subtitles are adequate. Grade: A-

Earth (DVD)

Earth (2007) narrated by James Earl Jones. From the folks at Disney comes this documentary about the Earth, its climate, and the creatures that roam its surface. Some of the photography is truly spectacular, as we follow polar bears, elephants and whales in their quest to survive. But if you've seen nature documentaries before, and I have, it all has a "been there, seen that" quality to it. It does have good subtitles. Grade: B

Gran Torino (DVD)

Gran Torino (2008) starring Clint Eastwood, directed by Clint Eastwood. Crusty, racist Korean War veteran Walt Kowalski (Eastwood) must come to terms with his Hmong immigrant neighbors after his wife dies. Basically, it's "Dirty Harry Grows Old"; he keeps a loaded gun handy in his house, and carries a handgun with him in his pickup truck. If you're any kind of an Eastwood fan, it's great fun to watch -- and it comes with a poetic twist at the end that I, for one, did not quite see coming. Grade: A-

Rudo y Cursi (DVD)

Rudo y Cursi (2008) starring Diego Luna, Gael Garcia Bernal. Two Mexican half-brothers dream of escaping poverty by finding fame as professional soccer players. Tato (Bernal) is the first to make the pros, but Rudo (Luna) is not far behind. They end up playing for rival teams, both with success. But the two brothers react to success differently. Tato (nicknamed Cursi by the press) has a weakness for women, while Rudo is an inveterate gambler -- and becomes a drug user. Soon, both of their lives are spinning out of control in amusing and entertaining ways. The grand finale revolves around a big soccer game in which they are pitted against each other -- and it might help your enjoyment of the movie if you know a little something about soccer. The film is in Spanish with English subtitles. Grade: B

Adventureland (DVD)

Adventureland (2008) starring Jesse Eisenberg, Ryan Reynolds, Kristen Stewart. It's 1987, and recent college grad James Brennan (Eisenberg) finds the his planned trip to Europe canceled due to money problems. Instead, he must take a summer job at Adventureland, a low-rent local amusement park. Although he fears he has fallen into a dead-end job, he meets interesting people and soon finds his life entwined with his fellow employees. The soundtrack of the movie is saturated with '80s music, which will surely have nostalgia value for those who came of age in the '80s. The characters and plot are interesting and original enough that I can recommend this movie. Grade: B+

Blade Runner (DVD)

Blade Runner (1982) starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young. This is the international theatrical release, the version that was shown outside the U.S. when the film was originally released. I've never seen it before and I'm curious to see if it is substantially different from the U.S. version. ... It's not. It only shows a few more seconds of explicit violence that, apparently, were felt to be too rough for Americans to see. It's essentially the same experience as watching the U.S. theatrical version. Grade: A-

Duplicity (DVD)

Duplicity (2008) starring Julia Roberts, Clive Owen, Tom Wilkinson, Paul Giamatti. Roberts and Owen play Claire and Ray, a pair of spies on opposite sides in an industrial espionage caper. Wilkinson and Giamatti are great as rival CEOs who hate each other. Though they are working against each other, Claire and Ray are romantically involved -- and they are secretly working together to raise $40 million so that they can get away and be together. Or at least that's what they tell each other. As befits such a movie, there's a Big Twist towards the end, and I must admit I didn't see it coming. Unfortunately, it doesn't lead to a Happy Ending, and I also admit I felt a little let down. But Roberts and Owen are fun to watch, and they are good together. The film also has excellent subtitles -- even including the lyrics to the closing song over the credits. Grade: B

Surveillance (DVD)

Surveillance (2007) starring Julia Ormond, Bill Pullman, Ryan Simpkins, Kent Harper, Pell James, Michael Ironside, Cheri Oteri, French Stewart. Written and directed by Jennifer Lynch, daughter of eccentric auteur David Lynch. Ormond and Pullman play a pair of FBI agents investigating a series of gruesome murders; Simpkins, Harper and James play witnesses with widely varying accounts of what they have seen. But that brief description doesn't begin to fully disclose what the experience of seeing this movie is like. It's one of the most sickening, disgusting movies I've ever seen. There's a major twist in the middle that makes it interesting, but it's not worth it to sit through all the sadistic bullying and bloody gore. To top it all off, it lacks English subtitles for the hearing-impaired, making it a chore to follow. Grade: F

Blade Runner (DVD)

Blade Runner (1982) starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young. This 1982 theatrical version of the movie is the first one I saw, at a theater here in Springfield. It's the version which features the voice-over by Ford. This must be at least the 20th time I've seen this movie, but I always marvel at the beauty of the future world the filmmakers created. And I always cringe at the glaring flaws of character, plot and dialogue. Overall, this remains among my top 10 films of all time, if only for the impact it had on me when I first saw it in the theater. Grade: A-

I Love You, Man (DVD)

I Love You, Man (2009) starring Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Jaime Pressly, Rashida Jones, Jon Favreau. Peter and Zooey (Rudd and Jones) become engaged, only to find that Peter does not have a close friend to serve as his best man. In fact, he doesn't have any real male friends at all. He goes on a series of "man-dates" until he finally meets Sydney (Segel) by chance at an open house. Soon, Peter's blossoming friendship with Sydney is threatening to ruin his relationship with Zooey. Unfortunately, what's lacking in this movie is clever writing and truly funny jokes. The funniest moments come between Pressly and Favreau, as a constantly feuding couple -- but that's not where the focus of the movie lies. The true center of the film is supposed to be the bromance between Rudd and Segel, but sadly the two seem to be lacking in chemistry. There are really no big laughs to be had, only wry smiles. [The subtitles are adequate, but I wish they would have shown the words to the numerous songs on the soundtrack.] Grade: B-

The Magnificent Seven (DVD)

The Magnificent Seven (1960) starring Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn. Farmers from Mexican village grow tired of being victims of gang of thieves, led by Wallach, and hire seven American gunslingers to help them fight back. The Americans, led by Brynner, are a ragtag bunch. Based on the Japanese film, "Seven Samurai," and hews fairly closely to it, until climactic battle scenes. Stirring score by Elmer Bernstein is memorable, instantly recognizable. Big drawback of DVD is the lack of English subtitles for the hearing-impaired, especially as many of the characters -- Wallach in particular -- speak with Mexican accents. Oddly enough, the Japanese movie, with English subtitles throughout, was easier to follow. Grade: Film, A-, DVD, F

Being There (DVD)

Being There (1979) starring Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine. A simpleton named Chance (Sellers) happens to meet rich and powerful people, who interpret his artless speaking patterns as brilliance. Through a misunderstanding, he becomes known as Chauncey Gardiner -- a cipher in whom everyone who meets him sees what he (or she) wants to see. It's funny, at first. The film gets in some good shots at Washington and the establishment. Unfortunately, it goes on a little too long and there are a few merely ridiculous scenes toward the end. Grade: B-

Hannah Montana: The Movie (DVD)

Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009) starring Miley Cyrus, Billy Ray Cyrus, Emily Osment. This movie may be suitable viewing for tween girls -- it's certainly free of sex and violence -- but for adults it's just a big bore. There's a lot of nonsense about how Miley (brown hair) and Hannah (blond wig) keep disappointing people because they can't be in two places at the same time (since they're the same person). This all struck me as the basic weakness of the Hannah Montana concept -- kind of like the Clark Kent/Superman problem, but for girls. Kids might buy it, but it ain't for grown-ups. There are a few catchy musical numbers, but the subtitles are very inconsistent in displaying the words of the songs. Grade: D

Torchwood (DVD)

Torchwood (2006) starring Eve Myles, John Barrowman, Naoko Mori, Burn Gorman. BBC sci-fi production tells the tale of a secret organization known as Torchwood, which monitors alien incursions into Earth-space from a small city (Cardiff) in England. The premise is rather silly, but it's meant to be fun, not serious. In the first two episodes, contained on this disc, policewoman Gwen Cooper (Myles) stumbles onto the clandestine group and makes the acquaintance of its leader, Captain Jack Harkness (Barrowman), an American. In Gwen's first day on the job -- after being hired by Torchwood -- she accidentally releases an alien entity which kills its victims by having sex with them. Unfortunately, there's not much sci-fi and lots of low-fi in the action... typical of a low-budget series. Grade: B

Katyn (DVD)

Katyn (2007) by Polish director Andrzej Wajda. The names and faces of this film's stars will be unfamiliar to American audiences, but the drama is palpable. Beginning in 1939, at the beginning of World War II, Polish soldiers and other citizens find themselves trapped between the German occupying forces and advancing Soviet troops -- neither of which has the Poles' welfare foremost in mind. Sometime in 1940, some 12,000 Polish officers and intellectuals were massacred by the Soviets and buried in a mass grave in the Katyn Forest. During the war, the Germans use the slaughter as a propaganda point against the Soviets. After the war, the Soviets cynically blame the mass murder on the Germans. Poles living in Soviet-occupied Poland after the war find that they must agree with the Soviet line or face prison, or death. It's a tragic film without a happy ending, but worth seeing. Main shortcoming is mixture of Polish, German and Russian spoken during film, requiring sometimes complicated subtitle solutions. Grade: A-

The Class (DVD)

The Class (2008) starring Francois Begaudeau. Based on a non-fiction book, this movie tells the story of one year in the life of a French class in Paris, and the trials endured by the teacher of the class. The school is in one of the roughest neighborhoods in Paris, and the students' problems outside of class are reflected in the classroom. Though the ending of the film is anticlimactic, it still leaves the viewer with much to think about. Grade: B+

The Seven Samurai (DVD)

The Seven Samurai (1954) starring Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura. Directed by Akira Kurosawa. A village of Japanese farmers hires seven professional warriors to help them fend off a gang of bandits. Classic film has been the template for many others, including U.S. remake "The Magnificent Seven." The battle scenes of the second half of the movie are primitive, but exciting. My only cavil is the extreme length of the film, which comes in at about three and a half hours. Ultimately worth it, though. Grade: A

The Soloist (DVD)

The Soloist (2008) starring Robert Downey Jr., Jamie Foxx. Los Angeles newspaper reporter Steve Lopez (Downey) discovers brilliant street musician Nathaniel Ayers (Foxx) and decides to write about him. Their lives become intertwined when Lopez tries to rescue Ayers from life on the street. But Ayers does not want to be rescued, and Lopez must come to terms with his own limited ability to change the world. Ultimately, this movie becomes an indictment of the plight of the homeless, and why shouldn't it? The homeless section of Los Angeles is depicted as a kind of hell on Earth. Lopez may have been able to help Ayers in a limited way, but what about the rest of the 90,000 homeless in Los Angeles alone? Who will help them? Grade: B+

Speed (DVD)

Speed (1994) starring Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, Dennis Hopper. Psycho villain (Hopper) likes to blow things up -- and he doesn't mind if people die. So he places a bomb on a bus, rigged to explode if the bus slows to below 50 miles per hour. Reeves plays Jack Traven, a Los Angeles policeman to whom it falls to save the bus and the people on it. Bullock, in her breakthrough role, plays Annie, a woman who is called into service as the bus driver when the regular driver is injured. One exciting scene follows another as the action, though mostly confined to a bus, keeps us riveted. Grade: A-

Seven Sinners (DVD)

Seven Sinners (1940) starring Marlene Dietrich, John Wayne. Dietrich plays Bijou, a south-sea island hopping singer who seems to bring trouble wherever she goes. Wayne plays Lieutenant Dan Brent of the U.S. Navy, the man she falls in love with. It's a fairly entertaining film, full of fist-fights and bar riots; but it all hangs on the romance between Dietrich and Wayne. I wasn't convinced -- she was six years older than him at the time the film was made, and it shows. A lot of people must have found her appealing, but I don't. For me, the film gets a Grade: B

Shepherd of the Hills (DVD)

Shepherd of the Hills (1941) starring John Wayne, Betty Field, Harry Carey. Somewhat sentimental story about Ozark mountain folks, and the man (Wayne) who lives his life in the shadow of a curse -- the promise to kill the man who left his mother and sent her to an early grave. The production quality is good, and the subtitles are adequate. Grade: B

Hannah and Her Sisters (DVD)

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) starring Woody Allen, Michael Caine, Mia Farrow, Carrie Fisher, Barbara Hershey, Max von Sydow, Dianne Wiest, Julie Kavner. Directed by Woody Allen. One of the high points of Allen's filmmaking career depicts a group of neurotic New Yorkers with intertwined lives. It's an all-star production with scarcely a wrong note, complete with a happy ending. Grade: A-

Taxi Driver (DVD)

Taxi Driver (1976) starring Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Peter Boyle, Harvey Keitel. Critics may debate the merits of this movie, but what is indisputable is that the DVD lacks English subtitles for the hearing-impaired. About 25% of the dialogue is unintelligible to me. Grade: F

Repulsion (DVD)

Repulsion (1965) starring Catherine Deneuve. Directed by Roman Polanski. Young Frenchwoman named Carol (Deneuve), living in England, slips into madness -- one of Polanski's favorite themes. I saw this movie in 1965, and found it puzzling. Now I find it merely interesting -- not shocking, as I recalled. When you understand that Polanski's theme is insanity, everything makes sense, and yet of course no sense at all. Deneuve is quite beautiful, and plays disturbed convincingly. Grade: B

Coraline (DVD)

Coraline (2008) featuring the voices of Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher. A young girl named Coraline (Fanning) discovers a secret door that leads from her humdrum existence into another apartment, occupied by her "other mother" and "other father." Life with them seems like paradise -- until the true nature of the other mother (Hatcher) is revealed. Is Coraline dreaming, or is there a true evil spirit living in the other apartment? The stop-motion animation is marvelous and imaginative, and the story is a true original. Grade: B+

My So-Called Life (DVD)

My So-Called Life (1994) starring Claire Danes, Jared Leto. This old TV series is about a junior in high school (Danes) and her teenage angst and lust. Unfortunately, this disc lacks the all-important feature of subtitles for the hearing-impaired. Grade: F

The Unknown Woman (DVD)

The Unknown Woman (2006) starring Kseniya Rappoport. A young woman named Irena (Rappoport) escapes the sex trade in her native Ukraine and goes to settle in Italy. She manages to worm her way into a job as a servant to a wealthy couple, who treat her well but whom she plots to rob. Then one night, while walking home from work, she is savagely beaten by two strangers in Santa Claus suits. If this seems to be shaping up as a weird movie, that would be an accurate perception. But in the end, it all comes together and makes sense. This is a beautiful, if strange, motion picture. In Italian, with English subtitles. Grade: A-

Knowing (DVD)

Knowing (2008) starring Nicolas Cage, Rose Byrne. A science teacher (Cage) comes into possession of a list of numbers, written in 1959, which predicts all of the major disasters of the past 50 years. But wait -- it predicts three more disasters, one of which means the end of all life on Earth. The premise is preposterous, but then this is a science fiction movie. Oddly enough, some of the plot elements which seem most far-fetched turn out to be central to the story, and in the end it all makes a kind of sense. My objection to the movie is that there is too much of it, and a lot of stuff has been thrown in which merely confuses us without ultimately contributing to the forward thrust of the film. This might be one to see again and reconsider, but for now: Grade: B-

Bridge to Terabithia (DVD)

Bridge to Terabithia (2007) starring AnnaSophia Robb, Josh Hutcherson, Zooey Deschanel, Robert Patrick. New girl in town (Robb) teaches local boy (Hutcherson) how to use vivid imagination to better deal with poverty at home and bullies at school. Then (spoiler alert!) tragedy strikes, and the boy must learn to deal with the reality of death -- which he does in his own way. It's quite a jolting turn in what starts out as a fantasy movie, and I don't think it entirely works (unless you count jerking tears as working). I think Disney's promotion of this film was dishonest. They got me once with "Bambi" (who knew Bambi's mom would get killed?) and now with "Bridge to Terabithia." Grade: B

Lonely Are the Brave (DVD)

Lonely Are the Brave (1962) starring Kirk Douglas, Gena Rowlands, Micheal Kane, Walter Matthau, Carroll O'Connor. Douglas stars as Jack Burns, a cowboy who can't quite adjust to highways and fences, airplanes and radios. He breaks into jail to help a friend escape, only to find that the friend doesn't want to take the risk. So he breaks out by himself and goes on the run on horseback, pursued by men in Jeeps and helicopters. Who will triumph, man or technology? Good subtitles. Grade: B

The Long Riders (DVD)

The Long Riders (1980) starring David, Keith and Robert Carradine; James and Stacy Keach; Dennis and Randy Quaid; Nicholas and Christopher Guest; Pamela Reed. Director Walter Hill presents a bloody retelling of the story of the post-Civil War James-Younger gang. Bungling law enforcement makes heroes of the outlaws, but their doom is inevitable. When they travel from Missouri to Minnesota to rob a bank, the "squareheads" are ready for them.

The movie is OK, but this DVD lacks the indispensable feature of English subtitles for the hearing-impaired. For that reason it gets an F.

Platoon (DVD)

Platoon (1986) starring Charlie Sheen, Willem Dafoe, Tom Berenger. This is an excellent movie, but the DVD lacks the all-important feature of subtitles for the hearing-impaired. For that reason the disc gets an F.

Midnight Cowboy (DVD)

Midnight Cowboy (1969) starring Jon Voight, Dustin Hoffman, Brenda Vaccaro. Young Joe Buck (Voight) takes the bus from Texas to New York City, hoping to fulfill his dream of becoming a gigolo. He soon goes broke; and he soon meets Ratso Rizzo (Hoffman), a low-life con man with a limp and a persistent cough. Although they clash at first, they gradually become unlikely friends. They rip off a produce stand together, and later they attend a wacky New York-style happening/party, where Joe meets his first real customer (Vaccaro). Just when Joe's career is taking off, however, Ratso's illness takes a turn for the worse. This is a brilliant movie, and it packs a terrific dramatic punch. It won Oscars for Best Picture and Director of 1969. The soundtrack is memorable, too. Grade: A

Arrested Development (DVD)

Arrested Development, Season 1, Disc 1 (2003) starring Jason Bateman, Jeffrey Tambor, Jessica Walter, Portia di Rossi, Will Arnett, Tony Hale, David Cross, Michael Cera. The dysfunctional Bluth family suffer a setback when the patriarch of the clan (Tambor) is arrested for defrauding investors. Michael, the oldest son (Bateman), takes over and tries to keep the family together, but this assortment of loonies makes that effort an uphill task. There are many funny bits on this disc, some of them laugh-out-loud funny, but it doesn't quite live up to the critical raves. Grade: B+

Scrubs (DVD)

Scrubs, The Complete First Season: Disc 1 (2001) starring Zach Braff, Donald Faison, Sarah Chalke, Judy Reyes, John C. McGinley, Neil Flynn. This half-hour comedy about young doctors and hospital life starts with Day 1 of J.D. Dorian's (Braff) career as a medical practitioner. His friends include Turk (Faison) and Elliot Reid (Chalke). This show really started hitting its stride around Episode 4, with some laugh-out-loud fantasies from the mind of Dr. Dorian. It's one of the best comedies I've ever seen, although it never did terribly well in the Nielsen ratings. The subtitles on this DVD are excellent; they even include the lyrics to songs on the soundtrack. Grade: A

The Friends of Eddie Coyle (DVD)

The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) starring Robert Mitchum, Peter Boyle. Small-time crook Eddie "Fingers" Coyle (Mitchum) is facing jail time, with three kids and a wife waiting at home. It's a time when phones have rotary dials, and no one owns a cell phone or a personal computer, because they haven't been invented yet. All the cars are '60s or '70s models, naturally, because the film was made in 1973. I found the nostalgia angle more engaging than the crime story, which after all is pretty much out of date. Still, Mitchum is a powerful presence on the screen, and the drama of how he tries to avoid serving jail time is interesting to watch. Unfortunately, the finale falls a little flat. Grade: B

Raise the Red Lantern (DVD)

Raise the Red Lantern (1991) starring Gong Li. After her father's death, 19-year-old Songlian (Gong Li) marries a much older man, becoming the fourth concubine in the man's household. She finds herself in competition with the other mistresses of the house for the master's attention -- and the privileges that go with it. The interplay of personalities among the four "sisters" -- and Songlian's inability to adjust to life in the structured environment -- make for a subtly woven tapestry of a movie that can shock as well as entertain. In Chinese, with English subtitles. Grade: A

True Blood (DVD)

True Blood, Season 1, Disc 2 (2008) starring Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer. This disc contains Episodes 3 and 4 of the HBO series about telepathic Louisiana waitress Sookie (Paquin), who falls for vampire Bill Compton (Moyer). In Episode 3, Sookie meets some of Bill's evil vampire friends. Unlike Bill, they enthusiastically feed on the blood of humans. But they stay away from Sookie when Bill tells them that she is his. In Episode 4, Sookie's brother Jason gets in trouble when another woman he slept with is found murdered. Sookie, hoping to clear her brother's name, asks Bill to take her to a vampire bar called Fangtasia. When they are stopped by a patrol cop on their way back from the bar, Bill demonstrates his considerable powers of "persuasion." Overall, I found this disc less interesting than the first disc of the season. It seems less mysterious and more cliched. Grade: B-

Unforgiven (DVD)

Unforgiven (1992) starring Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Richard Harris, Frances Fisher. Long-retired gunslinger William Munny (Eastwood) takes one last job because he needs the money. Heading into the town of Big Whiskey, he's on a collision course with a mean sheriff called Little Bill (Hackman). When Little Bill tortures and kills Munny's partner Ned (Freeman), Munny rides into town to seek revenge. Eastwood directed this meditation on killing and being killed, which won multiple Oscars, including Best Picture and Director. My main complaint: At over two hours, it's a bit long. The subtitles are just adequate. Grade: A-

Marley & Me (DVD)

Marley & Me (2008) starring Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston, Eric Dane, Alan Arkin, Kathleen Turner. John Grogan (Wilson) surprises his wife Jenny (Aniston) with a puppy for her birthday. The puppy -- named Marley, after the musician -- grows into the "worst dog in the world." John writes newspaper columns about Marley, and the dog becomes part of the family. But as the family grows, tensions mount, and at one point Jenny says they have to get rid of Marley. Things never go that far, of course. The ending is kind of weepy, but what can you expect from a movie about a dog? Arkin plays John's boss, a newspaper editor, and Turner has a cameo as the leader of an obedience school to which the Grogans take Marley. The subtitles are excellent, by the way. Grade: B

Not Another Teen Movie (DVD)

Not Another Teen Movie (2001) starring Chyler Leigh, Jaime Pressly, Chris Evans, Mia Kirshner, Randy Quaid, Ed Lauter, Cerina Vincent. Meant to be a joke-a-second send-up like "Airplane!" or "Police Squad," this movie fails only by the fact that it's not very funny. The script is lame, and the jokes are not very original. A gratuitous cameo by Mr. T doesn't really help things. I did enjoy the exchange student who always walked around nude, though. Grade: D

Weeds (DVD)

Weeds, Season 4, Disc 3 (2008) starring Mary-Louise Parker, Elizabeth Perkins, Kevin Nealon. Nancy Botwin, pot-dealing mom (Parker), goes on a hallucinogenic trip with her lover, the mayor of Tijuana. Later, she finds that the tunnel that terminates in her maternity store is being used to smuggle guns to Mexico, and -- in the other direction -- hard drugs and underage girls to America. Meanwhile, her friend Celia (Perkins) is the object of an intervention, and Doug (Nealon) smuggles his "Mermex" from south of the border. While Nancy is suffering a crisis of conscience, the show has gotten far away from its original premise. Not that that's a bad thing. Grade: B

True Blood (DVD)

True Blood, Season 1, Disc 1 (2008) starring Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer. Since I don't subscribe to HBO, I've never seen this show before. In general, I'm not enthusiastic about vampire stories, but this one has good buzz, so I thought I'd give it a try. In this first installment, Sookie, a mind-reading waitress (Paquin), meets Bill, a vampire (Moyer). She saves him from some low-life humans who are trying to steal his blood; later, he returns the favor and saves her from a vicious attack. Meanwhile, a woman in the town is murdered by a person or persons unknown. And the people who attacked Sookie turn up dead. Altogether, I was pleasantly surprised and entertained. I'll be renting more discs in the "True Blood" series. Grade: B+

Waltz with Bashir (DVD)

Waltz with Bashir (2008), animated. Utilizing muted colors in the animation, director Ari Folman documents his quest to explore the memory gaps in his life during his service for the Israeli army in the Lebanese war of the early 1980s. In several vignettes based on interviews with colleagues and friends, Folman uncovers a shocking truth: There was a massacre of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon by right-wing Christian militias during the military campaign; defenseless men, women and children were killed in a genocidal attack. This film asks the question: Who was responsible? Was it just those pulling the triggers, or was it also those who observed and did nothing? The movie was a Golden Globe winner and Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film. Grade: B+

Confessions of a Shopaholic (DVD)

Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009) starring Isla Fisher, Joan Cusack, John Goodman, Krysten Ritter. Fisher plays Rebecca Bloomwood, a journalist with dreams of working for a top fashion magazine, and a serious shopping addict. She has 12 credit cards, and all of them are maxed out. By chance, she lands a job working at a financial magazine, where the editor is inexplicably impressed by her work. This movie hangs mostly on Fisher's charm, and she is cute, but not enough to make up for a hit-or-miss script. Grade: B

Farewell My Concubine (DVD)

Farewell My Concubine (1993) starring Zhang Fengyi, Leslie Cheung, Gong Li. Epic Chinese film starts in an opera school for boys in the 1920s and '30s. The boys are routinely beaten, and no punishment short of death seems too severe. Two of the boys (Leslie Cheung, Zhang Fengyi) become opera stars and lifelong friends, and their friendship spans over 50 years of Chinese history. One of them marries a courtesan (Gong Li), and the other must deal with his jealousy. The movie covers the period from the Warlord Era in the 1920s, through the Japanese occupation during World War II, through the short-lived Nationalist Republic, the Communist takeover, the 1966 Cultural Revolution, and on to its tragic denoument in 1977. Though this film is very long, at nearly three hours, I found myself engaged by all of it. It's beautifully filmed; however, the pleasures of Chinese opera still escape me. Extras: None Grade: A

The Reader (DVD)

The Reader (2008) starring Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, David Kross. In 1958 in West Berlin, young Michael (Kross) has a surprising love affair with an older woman, Hanna (Winslet). But Hanna abruptly disappears. Eight years later, as a law student, Michael attends a trial where he is surprised to see Hanna charged as a Nazi death camp guard. Fiennes plays the mature Michael, who communicates with Hanna while she is in prison. Winslet won an Oscar for her portrayal of Hanna. Although Fiennes' portion of the movie (approximately the final third) is weak, it is still worth seeing "The Reader" to witness Winslet's performance. Grade: A-

Weeds (DVD)

Weeds, Season 4, Disc 2 (2008) starring Mary-Louise Parker, Elizabeth Perkins, Kevin Nealon. Parker stars as Nancy Botwin, a suburban California mom who goes into the pot business after her husband dies. On this disc, she discovers that there is a tunnel to Mexico starting in the back room of the maternity shop she manages. She is kidnapped by a man she saw in the tunnel, and he turns out to be the mayor of Tijuana. She uses her feminine wiles to get him to supply her with "product" to sell. Then they have sex. There are several side-plots, all with interesting characters. It makes for an amusing couple of hours of viewing. Grade: B+

Singin' in the Rain (DVD)

Singin' in the Rain (1952) starring Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor, Jean Hagen. Arguably the greatest movie musical ever made, combines humor, music and dancing to make a great entertainment. The year is 1927, and the backdrop is Hollywood's need to shift from silent films to talkies. Hagen portrays a silent-movie queen whose voice makes it impossible for her to make the switch. Kelly and Reynolds provide the romance, while O'Connor brings the laughs with his standout number, "Make 'Em Laugh." The highlight of the film is Kelly performing the title number, dancin' and singin' in the rain. The transfer to DVD is gorgeous, and the subtitles are good. Grade: A

In Treatment (DVD)

In Treatment, Season 1, Disc 9 (2008) starring Gabriel Byrne, Dianne Wiest, Melissa George. The season finale of the HBO series ties up all the stories rather neatly, as we expect TV shows to do. One patient leaves town, one couple in therapy decide to divorce, and Dr. Paul Weston (Byrne) decides he can't follow through on his love for a former patient. The disc is a little disappointing, as it offers up only three episodes, with a running time of less than 90 minutes, and seems rather slender compared with the content of previous discs. Extras: None. Grade: B+

Californication (DVD)

Californication, Season 1, Disc 1 (2007) starring David Duchovny, Natascha McElhone, Madeleine Martin, Madeline Zima, Evan Handler. Duchovny plays Hank Moody, a sexy best-selling author who is irresistible to the ladies. After moving to Los Angeles from New York, he finds himself suffering from writer's block. But that doesn't stop him from having sex with a succession of beautiful women (frequently appearing nude). With dialogue like "Shut up and fuck me," this is obviously no "Little Dorrit." The series is saturated in sex, and the writing is not all that clever. Plus, this disc lacks subtitles for the hearing-impaired, although it does have closed captions -- which can only be viewed on a TV with closed-caption capability. Grade: C

Little Dorrit: Disc 4 (DVD)

Little Dorrit: Disc 4 (2008) starring Claire Foy, Matthew Macfadyen, Andy Serkis. Amy Dorrit's (Foy) father and uncle both die in Venice, and she comes home to England to mourn. Kindly Arthur Clennam (Macfadyen) continues to delve into the mystery of his father's dying words. Mr. Merdle, a highly regarded financier, commits suicide. Having lost all his money in Merdle's Ponzi scheme, Clennam finds himself consigned to the same debtors' prison from which the Dorrits had so lately emerged. A series of events then follows, which somehow manages to resolve all the strands of plot, eliminate the villains, and bring us to a surprising happy ending. Grade: A This disc also features an excellent Extra, which is an hour-long background study, told by the actors and producers, about Dickens and his time.

Weeds (DVD)

Weeds, Season 4, Disc 1 (2008) starring Mary-Louise Parker, Elizabeth Perkins, Albert Brooks, Kevin Nealon. Parker plays Nancy Botwin, a suburban California mom who turned to growing pot when she was in financial straits after her husband died. Brooks joins the cast as Nancy's neurotic father-in-law, who spends all his spare time at the track. Perkins is funny as Nancy's former friend who at first takes the rap for her, then rats her out. In Season 4 of the Showtime series, Nancy and her clan move south to set up shop in the beach town of Ren Mar, near the Mexican border. The action includes a drug run to Tijuana, a mercy killing, a lot of pot smoking, corrupt police, illegal aliens sneaking across the border in a pudding truck, and oh, did I mention the pot smoking? Grade: For pure entertainment value, A

In Treatment (DVD)

In Treatment, Season 1, Disc 8 (2008) starring Gabriel Byrne Dianne Wiest, Melissa George, Blair Underwood. This would have been Week 8 of the HBO series, and major changes are afoot. Alex (Underwood) has died in a training accident, and Dr. Weston (Byrne) is no longer seeing Laura (George) as a patient. Furthermore, Weston is having doubts about the efficacy of psychotherapy, as he reveals to his own therapist, Dr. Gina Toll (Wiest). And Dr. Toll reveals intimate details about her own life. For the series overall, Grade: A-

Ashes of Time Redux (2008)

Ashes of Time Redux (2008) starring Leslie Cheung. In ancient China, a swordsman retreats to the desert to recover from the sting of an affair gone wrong. There, he acts as a middleman, hiring warriors for various tasks. This recut of the director's 1994 wuxia epic eventually features lots of stylized swordplay, but the Chinese philosophy, language and mindset behind the film make it confounding, at least to me. The movie is poetic and beautifully photographed, and after I saw it I felt that I had seen something, but I just wasn't sure what. Grade: B-

Little Dorrit: Disc 2 (DVD)

Little Dorrit: Disc 2 (2008) starring Claire Foy, Matthew Macfadyen, Andy Serkis. This disc includes episodes 5-8, in which the Dorrit family discover that they are heir to a large estate, and are thus saved from debtors' prison. Mr. Dorrit's reaction to his new-found wealth is quite surprising, and not very pleasant. Meanwhile, Arthur Clennam (Macfadyen) remains a good friend to the Dorrits, while they (except Amy [Foy]) turn their backs on him. The coming into wealth of the Dorrits is not the happy ending to this Dickensian tale. Grade: A-

Revolutionary Road (DVD)

Revolutionary Road (2008) starring Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Shannon. Set in the mid-1950s, this story follows the Wheelers (Winslet and DiCaprio), a young couple in suburban Connecticut who try desperately to confront the problems in their relationship while raising two children. Early on, the Wheelers decide that they will chuck their stifling existence and move to Paris. But right after the decision is made, Frank Wheeler (DiCaprio) gets an enticing business offer. And April Wheeler (Winslet) becomes pregnant. Then the two begin a series of escalating arguments; they both have affairs. If you're looking for a happy ending, forget it. The film's main weakness is DiCaprio, who doesn't seem mature enough as an actor or as a person to fill his role. Otherwise, it's a fine movie. Grade: B+

Defiance (DVD)

Defiance (2008) starring Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell, George McKay. In 1941, four Jewish brothers flee the Nazi death squads in Belorussia and take sanctuary in the forest. Soon, they are joined by other surviving Jews, young and old, male and female, and a partisan community is formed. With their intimate knowledge of the countryside, the partisans are able to survive and fight back against Nazis and Nazi sympathizers who come hunting for them. But the two oldest brothers, Tuvia (Craig) and Zus (Schreiber) find that they have different philosophies on how a resistance should be fought. They go their separate ways -- but they are brothers, and end up back together. This movie is at times exciting (the battle scenes) and at times moving, and well worth renting. Grade: A-

Yes Man (DVD)

Yes Man (2008) starring Jim Carrey, Zooey Deschanel. Carl (Carrey) is unhappy, still pining for his ex-wife three years after his divorce. After attending an inspirational rally, he resolves to say "yes" to everything that comes his way. At first, the Philosophy of Yes seems to be working for him. He meets a girl named Allison (Deschanel) and she invites him to attend her 6 a.m. photography-jogging class. Naturally, he says yes. Things go well between them -- until Homeland Security takes an interest in Carl's varied activities. Ultimately, Carl comes to the pretty obvious conclusion that you don't have to say yes to everything for the philosophy to work, and the movie's ending is a bit of an anticlimax. Still, it's an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours. Grade: B