Jaws (DVD)

Jaws (1975) starring Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss. Steven Spielberg directed this nail-biter about a summer ocean resort under siege by a man-eating shark. Score by John Williams has become a classic. Movie won three Oscars. Grade: B

Closely Watched Trains (DVD)

Closely Watched Trains (1966). At a village railway station in occupied Czechoslovakia during World War II, a bumbling young man longs to liberate himself from his virginity. Leisurely pace of the film makes it a bit tedious to watch, plus the subtitles fail at several points to convey meaningful translation. This movie won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 1967. Grade: C

Deliverance (DVD)

Deliverance (1972) starring Burt Reynolds, Jon Voight, Ronny Cox, Ned Beatty. Four suburban buddies take a backwoods canoe trip down a Georgia river, and what they find is wilder and more dangerous than anything they had anticipated. All four of the male leads give standout performances, and the tension builds to a shattering climax. Memorable moments include Cox's "Dueling Banjos" scene and Beatty's "squeal like a pig" scene. Grade: A

The Dead Pool (DVD)

The Dead Pool (1988) starring Clint Eastwood, Patricia Clarkson, Liam Neeson. Eastwood reprises his role as "Dirty Harry" Callahan and Clarkson plays a local TV anchor who wants to "do his story." The "dead pool" of the title is a morbid game in which celebrities' names are placed on a list, betting on who will be the first to die. This was the last of the Dirty Harry series of movies, and it's not hard to see why. Eastwood is beginning to look his age, and the script is sorely lacking. Look for an appearance by Jim Carrey as a drug-addled rock star who is the first on the list to die. Grade: B-

Sleeper (DVD)

Sleeper (1973) starring Woody Allen, Diane Keaton. Health-food store owner Miles Monroe (Allen) dies and is cryogenically frozen. He wakes up 200 years in the future, in a dystopian society where the doctors who revived him are classified as criminals. The doctors are arrested, and Miles becomes a hunted man. Anyone familiar with Allen's humor will anticipate that this is not a movie to be taken seriously. It's also not among his best movies, relying heavily on slapstick to get its laughs, with only a little topical humor mixed in. It may have been the cat's pajamas in 1973, but today it's only mildly amusing. Worst of all, the DVD doesn't have subtitles for the hearing impaired. Movie: B DVD: F

Quigley Down Under (DVD)

Quigley Down Under (1990) starring Tom Selleck, Laura San Giacomo, Alan Rickman. American Matthew Quigley (Selleck) answers an ad for a sharpshooter to travel to Australia and shoot dingoes. When he gets there, he finds out that the man who has hired him (Rickman) is a ruthless killer who just wants to eliminate the aborigines from his land. Quigley fights only with a long rifle and a knife, so it makes for a different kind of Western. One thing is sorely lacking on this DVD: It does not have English subtitles for the hearing impaired. Some of the dialog is hard to understand, especially the various British, Scottish and Australian accents. Grade: Movie, B; DVD, D-

WALL-E (DVD)

WALL-E (2008). A robot named WALL-E has been left behind on Earth to perform cleanup chores after humans evacuate to remote space stations. While Earth has become a wasteland, humans on space habitats live a life of excessive ease, cared for by servant-bots who take care of their every need. WALL-E's life on Earth is disturbed by the arrival of a "female" robot probe named EVE, and he follows her out to space. It turns out that the humans have been gone for 700 years, and WALL-E is destined to be the agent who prods them to return to Earth. Grade: B+

A Shot in the Dark (DVD)

A Shot in the Dark (1964) starring Peter Sellers, Elke Sommer. Sellers makes his second appearance as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau, who is intent on proving the innocence of a maid (Sommer) accused of murder. He sets new standards for slapstick, and the verbal humor has to be heard to be believed. A movie that has aged well and remains laugh-out-loud funny. Directed by Blake Edwards. Grade: A

The Usual Suspects (DVD)

The Usual Suspects (1995) starring Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Spacey, Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Pollak, Benicio Del Toro, Chazz Palminteri, Pete Postlethwaite, Giancarlo Esposito, Suzy Amis, Dan Hedaya. A crew of criminals pull off a few daring jobs, then find themselves involved with a master criminal named Keyser Soze, who is so evil that he killed his own family rather than give in to crimelords in his homeland. The story is convoluted and hard to follow, but the payoff in the end makes it worthwhile. Spacey gives a great performance. Grade: A-

Clueless (DVD)

Clueless (1995) starring Alicia Silverstone, Paul Rudd, Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy. Directed by Amy Heckerling, this modern update of Jane Austen's "Emma" is set in Beverly Hills, where high school girl Cher (Silverstone) decides to take a new girl (Murphy) under her wing and give her a fashion makeover. The movie is shot through with bons mots that an adult could never dream up, and broke ground in many ways. It's definitely worth seeing. Grade: A-

Get Smart (DVD)

Get Smart (2008) starring Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Alan Arkin, The Rock, Terence Stamp. Secret-agent farce in which Maxwell Smart (Carell) is promoted to field agent after everyone else in CONTROL gets their cover compromised. Agent 99 (Hathaway) is his reluctant partner in a silly mission to Russia, where they assault a bread factory. Later, there is some nonsense about a KAOS plot to set off a nuclear bomb in Los Angeles, but it's mostly just slapstick. Fans of the original TV series may or may not be gratified to find some of the more famous jokes recycled. Grade: B-

Matchstick Men (DVD)

Matchstick Men (2003) starring Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, Alison Lohman. Professional con man (Cage) struggles comically with obsessive-compulsive disorder, eventually meets the daughter he never knew he had (Lohman), complicating his life. His partner (Rockwell) eventually proves more than he bargained for, and the film takes an unexpected turn that I did not see coming. Grade: B

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (DVD)

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) starring Harrison Ford, Shia LaBeouf, Cate Blanchett, Ray Winstone, Jim Broadbent, Karen Allen, John Hurt. Ford is showing his age as the famed archaeologist Indiana Jones, this time searching for a crystal skull and a lost city in South America. LaBeouf plays his young sidekick, and Blanchett is an evil Soviet agent in this adventure set in 1957. It mostly seems comprised of little bits here and there snipped from old Indiana Jones movies. Grade: B

Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (DVD)

Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (2008) starring Abigail Breslin, Julia Ormond, Chris O'Donnell, Stanley Tucci, Jane Krakowski, Wallace Shawn, Joan Cusack. Depression-era drama about a girl (Breslin) who aspires to be a journalist, and the struggles of her family after her father (O'Donnell) loses his job. When the family's savings are stolen, the girl becomes a detective
-- she doesn't believe that the hobo being blamed for the crime is guilty. The film examines the status of hobos of the time, the rough equivalent of today's homeless. It's quite entertaining, but clearly aimed at a younger audience -- namely kids. It's rated G, and is suitable for the whole family. Grade: B

Iron Man (DVD)

Iron Man (2008) starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges, Terrence Howard. Ultra-rich inventor and weapons merchant Tony Stark (Downey) escapes from kidnappers in Afghanistan by building a makeshift suit of super-armor and fighting his way out. But while he was there, he saw American troops killed by weapons that his company made -- and decides that from now on, he will use his genius for good. Various complications ensue, with plenty of action and special effects. Grade: A

Sudden Impact (DVD)

Sudden Impact (1983) starring Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Pat Hingle. Eastwood produced and directed this fourth installment in the "Dirty Harry" series. Locke, who was Eastwood's off-screen love interest at the time the film was made, plays a gang-rape victim who is seeking revenge by killing her attackers, one at a time. Just by coincidence (wink, wink) Harry Callahan (Eastwood) is sent to investigate the first killing, in the town where the killings are taking place. This movie has a weak script; is overpopulated with characters (especially bad guys); and as a director, Eastwood's color palette is way too dark. Many scenes are hard to see clearly on a television screen. Grade: C+

Baby Mama (DVD)

Baby Mama (2008) starring Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Greg Kinnear, Sigourney Weaver, Steve Martin. Driven career woman (Fey) learns she is infertile, and hires a surrogate (Poehler) to carry her baby. The script is rather clever and sweet, and all ends well. But the film still has the feel of an extended "Saturday Night Live" skit. Extras: A making-of, deleted scenes, commentary, and more. Grade: B

Drugstore Cowboy (DVD)

Drugstore Cowboy (1989) starring Matt Dillon, Kelly Lynch, James Le Gros, Heather Graham. A quartet of addicts rob pharmacies to fuel their drug habits. When one of them dies of an overdose, the leader (Dillon) decides to try and go straight. This is reputed to be a good movie, but it was hard for me to judge since it lacks subtitles for the hearing impaired. Grade: F

Stuck (DVD)

Stuck (2007) starring Mena Suvari, Stephen Rea. The one redeeming virtue of this movie is that it is based on a true story. Driving home from a bar one night, a young woman (Suvari) runs into a pedestrian (Rea), who survives but becomes lodged in her windshield. Instead of immediately driving to a hospital, she freaks out and decides to drive home. She parks her car in her closed garage while she tries to decide what to do. While he is clearly still alive, she is afraid to seek help for him because she still thinks there might be a way out for her. From there, it's a short step downward to actively wanting him dead. The plot then takes several increasingly bizarre twists and turns. Extras: None. Grade: C

Paranoid Park (DVD)

Paranoid Park (2007) starring Gabe Nevins, Lauren McKinney, Taylor Momsen. Teenage skater boy Alex (Nevins) accidentally kills a security guard at the train tracks near a skate park. When he decides to keep it to himself, guilty feelings gradually seem to fade until the death is just an unpleasant memory. Directed by Gus Van Sant from a novel by Blake Nelson. Extras: None. Grade: B-