Vidal, Christina

I Think I Love My Wife

Chris Rock's loose remake of 1972's Chloe In the Afternoon, the latter an entry in French New Wave genius Eric Rohmer's Six Moral Tales cycle, is a half-silly, half-starchy adult comedy about a buttoned-up money manager, Richard Cooper (Rock), whose staid life at home has worn down his sexual vitality. With two kids and a somewhat joyless wife (Gina Torres), Richard's mind wanders on the job, on the train, virtually anywhere a restless husband can spot beautiful, unattainable women. Still, no harm done, until old friend Nikki (Kerry Washington) shows up in his office, wanting his support and counsel and friendship every minute over subsequent weeks. The two stay out of the sack, which makes it possible for them to be honest with one another. Nikki criticizes Richard for being in what appears to be a loveless relationship, bled dry of passion. Richard calls out Nikki for being flighty, unwilling to commit to anything.

As the relationship wears on, Richard's world is upended, and the havoc takes a toll on his family life and productivity. It's at this point where the film, co-adapted for the screen and directed by Rock, paints itself into a corner, with few interesting alternatives for a way out of Richard's dilemma that feel authentic or, for that matter, funny. A Viagra-inspired visual joke (gee, hard to imagine what that could be) is a crass gift to audience members growing suspicious that Rock has lured them into a chick flick. A soul duet between Rock and Torres appears out of nowhere and throws the emotional balance off at a crucial moment. This kind of thing makes one wonder how seriously Rock took his own project, yet there are signs that he--a very funny and intelligent talent--has a different kind of movie in him. Jokes about Michael Jackson, race, and even racially-slanted comedy are peppered throughout I Think I Love My Wife, harmless distractions in context, yet suggestive of a different kind of movie satire waiting to come out of Rock. --Tom Keogh

Beyond I Think I Love My Wife

Chris Rock DVDs

Directors Starring in Their Own Movies

African-American Cinema

Stills from I Think I Love My Wife

A married man (Chris Rock) who daydreams about being with other women finds his will and morals tested after he's visited by the ex-mistress of his old friend. A funny and thought provoking look about the joy and pain of marriage and relationships.System Requirements:Running Time: 94 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: R UPC: 024543457862 Manufacturer No: 2245786

Freaky Friday

In the wonderfully entertaining Freaky Friday, teenager Anna (Lindsay Lohan) and her forty-something psychiatrist mom Tess (Jamie Lee Curtis) have sunk into a rut of frustrated bickering--until a magic spell causes them to switch bodies. Suddenly Tess finds herself faced with petty teachers, vicious rivals, and a hunky boy, while Anna has to cope with her mother's neurotic patients as well as her befuddled fiance (Mark Harmon), who doesn't understand why his bride-to-be is suddenly recoiling from his embrace on the eve of their wedding. Both Lohan and Curtis turn in deft, delightful performances, with Curtis showing a surprising flair for physical comedy. The movie even manages to explore serious issues about fractured families, new parents, and adolescent sexuality with honesty and empathy--and without making the story stop dead in its tracks. It's a mother-daughter film that fathers and sons can enjoy just as much. --Bret Fetzer

In the tradition of THE PRINCESS DIARIES, Disney's FREAKY FRIDAY is the extremely funny and heartwarming comedy everyone will love. Dr. Tess Coleman (the hilarious Jamie Lee Curtis) and her teenage daughter Anna (rockin' Lindsay Lohan) have one thing in common -- they don't relate to each other on anything. Not clothes or men or Anna's passion to be in a rock band. Nothing. Then one night a little mystic mayhem changes their lives and they wake up to the biggest freak-out ever. Tess and Anna are trapped inside each other's body! But Tess's wedding is Saturday and the two must find a way to switch back -- fast! Literally forced to walk in each other's shoes, will they gain respect and understanding for the other's point of view? Filled with comedy, rock 'n roll and lots of heart, FREAKY FRIDAY is freaking fun everyone can enjoy together

Welcome to the Dollhouse

What is junior high school but a strange, disorienting pastiche of black comedy, tragedy, soap opera, and (most of all) horror movie? Well, that pretty much describes Todd Solondz's astonishingly honest and clear-sighted film, Welcome to the Dollhouse. Like Solondz's even more controversial follow-up--the acclaimed and despised Happiness (1998)--Dollhouse unflinchingly looks deep into its characters' souls (and their embarrassing desires, and their floundering sexuality) in ways that can be simultaneously disturbing and liberating, appalling and hilarious. Dawn Wiener (Heather Matarazzo) is a hapless seventh-grade geek whose cruel and contemptuous schoolmates have nicknamed her (what else?) "Wiener Dog." Everything about Dawn is so awkward--the way she looks, talks, moves--that it's no wonder other kids dump on her. They're most likely so insecure about themselves that they're terrified of the Wiener Dog they know lurks somewhere down inside themselves, too. So, the best social and psychological survival tactic is to distance themselves from Dawn by relentlessly reminding her of her "place" at the bottom of the junior-high pecking order. Solondz's vision is hardly sentimental, and you wouldn't even call it "compassionate," but it is a moral vision: authentic, undiluted, and, in the end, understanding. --Jim Emerson

See No Evil (Widescreen Edition)

Seven feet tall. Four hundred pounds. A rusty steel plate screwed into his skull and razor-sharp fingernails that pluck out his victims' eyes. Reclusive psychopath Jacob Goodnight is holed up in the long-abandoned and rotting Blackwell Hotel alone with his nightmares until eight petty criminals show up for community service duty along with the cop who put a bullet in Jacob's head four years ago. When one of their own is kidnapped by the killer and her fate uncertain the remaining lawbreakers must fight this indestructible force of nature who has a violent score to settle.System Requirements:Run Time: 84 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR Rating: R UPC: 031398201434 Manufacturer No: 20143

Produced by World Wrestling Entertainment mogul Vince McMahon, See No Evil a standard-issue death-fest designed for maximum gross-out appeal, and in that sense it delivers the goods with crushed heads, multiple eye-gougings, throat-rippings and other grisly fates that gore fans will want to discover for themselves. If your idea of a good time is watching a mangy dog urinate into the vacant eye socket of a corpse, this is just the movie for you! In an attempt to create a new horror icon like Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees, former porno director Gregory Dark and less-than-stellar screenwriter Dan Madigan have dreamed up a routine plot that's hardly original, but deviously addictive to anyone who digs this kind of stuff: Eight troubled and not-very-bright teens, fresh out of a detention center, are given a second chance when they're taken to the decrepit, filthy Blackwell Hotel and told to clean the place up so it can be turned into a homeless shelter. What they don't know is that the hotel hides a secret, axe-wielding resident named Jacob Goodnight (played by WWE superstar Glen "Kane" Jacobs) who's got a knack for plucking the eyeballs from his hapless and ill-fated victims. He's basically an evil kid in the hulking body of a wrestler (call it type-casting, if you will), and See No Evil is more sick than scary as Jacob does his handiwork, which includes the rather hilarious and grimly ironic dispatch of an animal rights activist, to name just one item in the movie's smorgasbord of splatter. At a brisk 85 minutes, the movie's over before you can work up any genuine terror. Still, a sequel seems likely (even if it's straight-to-video), and devoted horror fans will want to check it out.--Jeff Shannon

Life with Mikey

Michael J. Fox's Mikey is the Broadway Danny Rose of child actors. A former child sitcom star turned half-hearted agent to a stable of overeager adolescents, he finds a natural talent when he watches a 12-year-old pickpocket (Christina Vidal) work a crowd to tears. Of course, nothing comes without a price, and the self-involved bachelor soon becomes the unlikely big brother to street-smart Vidal, who soon gives way to sunny cheer. Fox is such an inspired casting choice that most critics missed the undercurrent of self-loathing and loneliness in his impulsive irresponsibility and glib, effortless charm, and Nathan Lane is hilarious as his overworked brother and business partner. They don't get much help from the script, which bounces between smarmy showbiz satire and warm, fuzzy family comedy and winds up as neither, but they manage to make it funny nonetheless.--Sean Axmaker

Hollywood favorite Michael J. Fox (BACK TO THE FUTURE Trilogy) is at his best in this hilarious comedy about show biz. Fox stars as Mikey, a former child star having a little trouble with his new role as a kids' talent agent. He's desperate to find a way to keep his third-rate talent agency from going under when he meets Angie, a young con artist. With her streetwise smarts and irresistible charm, she's a natural for TV commercials and could be their ticket to the big time -- if they don't drive each other crazy first! Count on big laughs with LIFE WITH MIKEY, a fun-filled comedy treat that's sure to entertain everyone!

Freaky Friday [Region 2]

In the wonderfully entertaining Freaky Friday, teenager Anna (Lindsay Lohan) and her forty-something psychiatrist mom Tess (Jamie Lee Curtis) have sunk into a rut of frustrated bickering--until a magic spell causes them to switch bodies. Suddenly Tess finds herself faced with petty teachers, vicious rivals, and a hunky boy, while Anna has to cope with her mother's neurotic patients as well as her befuddled fiance (Mark Harmon), who doesn't understand why his bride-to-be is suddenly recoiling from his embrace on the eve of their wedding. Both Lohan and Curtis turn in deft, delightful performances, with Curtis showing a surprising flair for physical comedy. The movie even manages to explore serious issues about fractured families, new parents, and adolescent sexuality with honesty and empathy--and without making the story stop dead in its tracks. It's a mother-daughter film that fathers and sons can enjoy just as much. --Bret Fetzer

See No Evil

Produced by World Wrestling Entertainment mogul Vince McMahon, See No Evil a standard-issue death-fest designed for maximum gross-out appeal, and in that sense it delivers the goods with crushed heads, multiple eye-gougings, throat-rippings and other grisly fates that gore fans will want to discover for themselves. If your idea of a good time is watching a mangy dog urinate into the vacant eye socket of a corpse, this is just the movie for you! In an attempt to create a new horror icon like Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees, former porno director Gregory Dark and less-than-stellar screenwriter Dan Madigan have dreamed up a routine plot that's hardly original, but deviously addictive to anyone who digs this kind of stuff: Eight troubled and not-very-bright teens, fresh out of a detention center, are given a second chance when they're taken to the decrepit, filthy Blackwell Hotel and told to clean the place up so it can be turned into a homeless shelter. What they don't know is that the hotel hides a secret, axe-wielding resident named Jacob Goodnight (played by WWE superstar Glen "Kane" Jacobs) who's got a knack for plucking the eyeballs from his hapless and ill-fated victims. He's basically an evil kid in the hulking body of a wrestler (call it type-casting, if you will), and See No Evil is more sick than scary as Jacob does his handiwork, which includes the rather hilarious and grimly ironic dispatch of an animal rights activist, to name just one item in the movie's smorgasbord of splatter. At a brisk 85 minutes, the movie's over before you can work up any genuine terror. Still, a sequel seems likely (even if it's straight-to-video), and devoted horror fans will want to check it out.--Jeff Shannon

Life with Mikey [Region 2]

Michael J. Fox's Mikey is the Broadway Danny Rose of child actors. A former child sitcom star turned half-hearted agent to a stable of overeager adolescents, he finds a natural talent when he watches a 12-year-old pickpocket (Christina Vidal) work a crowd to tears. Of course, nothing comes without a price, and the self-involved bachelor soon becomes the unlikely big brother to street-smart Vidal, who soon gives way to sunny cheer. Fox is such an inspired casting choice that most critics missed the undercurrent of self-loathing and loneliness in his impulsive irresponsibility and glib, effortless charm, and Nathan Lane is hilarious as his overworked brother and business partner. They don't get much help from the script, which bounces between smarmy showbiz satire and warm, fuzzy family comedy and winds up as neither, but they manage to make it funny nonetheless.--Sean Axmaker