Sabrina
by Sydney Pollack
from Paramount
Remake of the 1954 film about a modern-day Cinderella who is the daughter of a wealthy family's chauffeur. When she is transformed into a graceful woman, she captures the attention of the sons of the family.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG
Release Date: 29-DEC-2004
Media Type: DVD
Julia Ormond faced one of the great challenges of her career when she tried to re-create Audrey Hepburn's title role in the 1995 remake of 1954's Sabrina. Happily, Ormond performed admirably, and while she may not have the same gamine charm of Hepburn, she makes the role her own. In fact, her transformation from mousy girl to sophisticated young woman is actually more dramatic in this updated version. The basic plot is the same--chauffeur's daughter falls in love with the son of the rich household, only to be wooed away by the older brother for business purposes--but it has been entertainingly modernized: The head of the Larrabee household is the strong matriarch (Nancy Marchand); Sabrina goes to Paris to work with a photographer instead of going to cooking school (although that means the wonderful "new egg" scene of the original had to be ditched); David's (Greg Kinnear) character has been toned down and made more sympathetic; and Humphrey Bogart's revolutionary plastic has become the flattest TV screen ever made. Lauren Holly does a fine job playing Elizabeth Tyson, David's fiancée. If you watch this for its own worth--instead of comparing it to the original--this will prove to be a terrific lighthearted romantic comedy. --Jenny Brown
In & Out
by Frank Oz
from Paramount
When a Hollywood heartthrob (Matt Dillon, playing a Brad Pitt look-alike) "outs" his small-town high-school drama teacher Howard Brackett (Kevin Kline) during the Oscar telecast, the entire (fictional) town of Greenleaf, Indiana, wonders if Howard's really gay. More to the point, Howard wonders, too--quite a dilemma considering his pending marriage to Emily (Joan Cusack), who's patiently tolerated a three-year engagement. While a TV reporter (Tom Selleck) covers the ensuing furor, screenwriter Paul Rudnick and director Frank Oz make good-natured humor their highest priority, turning the "crisis" of coming out into a laugh-out-loud spin on conventional romantic comedy. The result is a film that delivers constant laughs and a golden opportunity for its fine cast to show off their considerable comedic talents--especially Cusack, who deservedly earned an Oscar nomination for her hilarious performance as the bride who's almost as confused as her would-be husband. That Rudnick and Oz have made a great comedy that's both old-fashioned and relevant to the late 20th century is no small feat, but In & Out has no hidden agenda apart from its triumphant desire to entertain. --Jeff Shannon
High school teacher Howard Brackett is outed by former student during the Oscars and does his frantic best to assert his manliness.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 9-AUG-2005
Media Type: DVD
Harriet the Spy (Widescreen Collection)
by Bronwen Hughes
from Paramount
This feature production from Nickelodeon is based on a popular kids' book from the 1960s by Louise Fitzhugh, and stars Michelle Trachtenberg as an 11-year-old wannabe journalist who writes all her observations about friends in a diary. When the book is stolen and read by her peers, she's ostracized. The film is hard to watch for all its sensory overload (rapid cuts, kooky camera angles), but its theme of finding a balance between a commitment to one's voice and one's obligations to others is fairly wise stuff. With Rosie O'Donnell and Eartha Kitt. --Tom Keogh
Mighty Aphrodite
from Miramax
Mira Sorvino won an Oscar for her performance as a bubbleheaded hooker and porn star who happens to be the mother of a bright young boy adopted by a Manhattan couple (Woody Allen and Helena Bonham Carter). The story finds Allen's sportswriter character becoming curious about the identity of his son's biological mom, and he strikes up a relationship with her without revealing why. This 27th feature written and directed by Allen is a nice combination of smart comedy and some of the wackier energy of his earliest movies. (Between scenes, there's a running gag involving a Greek chorus--actually filmed among some real Greek ruins--who do song-and-dance interpretations of the script's events.) This isn't Allen at his best, but it is a fine minor work graced by Sorvino's spin on the cinema's archetypal dumb blonde. --Tom Keogh
A father becomes obsessed with the natural mother of his adopted son.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: R
Release Date: 6-APR-2004
Media Type: DVD
You Can Count on Me
from Paramount
You Can Count On Me starts with a terrible car crash that instantly orphans a little boy and his older sister. At film's end, that boy, now a grown-up nomad and ne'er-do-well, takes off by Greyhound after a brief reunion with his sister, who lives at permanent anchor in their unspoiled hometown. The sibling saga that unreels between wrenching collision and bittersweet separation celebrates the idiosyncratic ways wounded folk like Terry (Mark Ruffalo) and Sammy (Laura Linney) put one foot in front of the other, both energized and hamstrung by the knowledge that nothing is ever certain in the road-movie of life. During his visit, Terry roils Sammy's beca