Wood, John

Sabrina

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

An ugly duckling having undergone a remarkable change still harbors feelings for her crush: a carefree playboy but not before his business-focused brother has something to say about it. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 01/25/2005 Starring: Harrison Ford Julia Ormond Run time: 127 minutes Rating: Pg Director: Sydney Pollack

Ladyhawke

In this 700 year old legend of love and honor two lovers are separated by an evil curse. A valiant knight is aided in his quest by a wise crakcing thief in his quest to break the spell by destroying its creator. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 02/08/2005 Starring: Matthew Broderick Rutger Hauer Run time: 121 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Richard Donner

This lushly produced fantasy has gained a loyal following since its release in 1985, and it gave a welcomed boost to the careers of Matthew Broderick, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Rutger Hauer. You have to ignore the overly aggressive music score (critic Pauline Kael aptly dubbed it "disco-medieval") and director Richard Donner's reckless allowance of anachronistic dialogue and uninspired storytelling, but there's a certain charm to the movie's combination of romance and heroism. Broderick plays a young thief who comes to the aid of tragic lovers Isabeau (Pfeiffer), who is cursed to become a hawk every day at sunrise and Navarre (Hauer) who turns into a wolf at sunset. The curse was cast by an evil sorcerer-bishop (John Wood), and as Broderick eludes the bishop's henchmen, Navarre struggles to conquer the villain, lift the curse, and be reunited with his love in human form. The tragedy of this lovers' dilemma keeps the movie going, and Broderick is well cast as a young, medieval variation of Woody Allen. --Jeff Shannon

War Games (25th Anniversary Edition)

Cute but silly, this 1983 cautionary fantasy stars Matthew Broderick as a teenage computer genius who hacks into the Pentagon's defense system and sets World War III into motion. All the fun is in the film's set-up, as Broderick befriends Ally Sheedy and starts the international crisis by pretending while online to be the Soviet Union. After that, it's not hard to predict what's going to happen: government agents swoop in, but the story ends up in the "hands" of machines talking to one another. Thus we're stuck with flashing lights, etc. John Badham (Saturday Night Fever) directs in strict potboiler mode. Kids still like this movie, though. The DVD release has a widescreen presentation, theatrical trailer, Dolby sound, director commentary, optional English, French and Spanish subtitles. --Tom Keogh

Matthew Broderick (Ferris Bueller's Day Off) and Ally Sheedy (The Breakfast Club) star in this compelling drama filled with action suspense and high-tech adventures! Featuring superb performances by Dabney Coleman and Barry Corbin WarGames is "brilliant...funny...and provocative" (New York)a fast-paced cyber-thriller. Computer hacker David Lightman (Broderick) can bypass the most advanced security systems break the most intricate secret codes and mastereven the most difficult computer games. But when he unwittingly taps into the Defense Department's war computer he initiates a confrontation of global proportionsWorld War III! Together with his girlfriend (Sheedy) and a wizardly computer genius (Tony Award (r) winner John Wood) David must race against time to outwit his opponent...and prevent a nuclear Armageddon.System Requirements:Running Time: 114 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/HEROES Rating: PG UPC: 027616098764 Manufacturer No: M109876

Jumpin' Jack Flash

Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 09/05/2006

Whoopi Goldberg (The Color Purple) gives one of her earliest and finest film performances as Terry Doolittle, a computer programmer who unwittingly becomes embroiled in an international espionage scheme, forced to outmaneuver the CIA and KGB in this riotous 1986 Cold War comedy. Doolittle, the outspoken and irreverent employee of an international bank, is working overtime one evening when her terminal receives an encrypted message pleading for help from Jumpin' Jack Flash, code name for a British spy (Jonathan Pryce) trapped in Eastern Europe. At first reluctantly and then audaciously, Doolittle becomes privy to his predicament and essential to his escape while delivering a steady stream of ribald one-liners and witty slapstick—whether it's her Mick Jagger impersonation, police station meltdown, or infamous dress-caught-in-the-paper-shredder escapade at the British Consulate ball. A host of supporting talent includes Annie Potts, Jon Lovitz, Jim Belushi, the late Phil Hartman, and Stephen Collins (who shines as Marty, the mole), yet the film belongs to Whoopi. Though the plot is far-fetched and often flimsy, Penny Marshall (in her directorial debut) gives Goldberg enough latitude to showcase her immense talent in a role she obviously relishes—and audiences will too. Rated R for extreme profanity and mature themes. --Lynn Gibson

An Ideal Husband

For truly clever dialogue and a smartly structured plot, you can't go wrong with Oscar Wilde. Wilde's play An Ideal Husband is not his best known, but this film adaptation has all the wit you could ask for and a cast with the chops to deliver it: Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth, Oscar and Lucinda), Julianne Moore (Short Cuts, Boogie Nights), Minnie Driver (Grosse Pointe Blank, Big Night), Jeremy Northam (The Winslow Boy, Emma), and especially Rupert Everett (My Best Friend's Wedding, A Midsummer Night's Dream), who tosses off perfect epigrams with unflappable aplomb. The plot hinges on Northam, a member of Parliament (the British governing body, not the funk band) with a skeleton in his closet who is blackmailed into a shady business deal by a lady of mystery (Moore), who turns out to be a loathed school chum of the parliamentarian's wife (Blanchett). Everything is resolved happily, but not until after some devious twists of fate, several mistaken identities, lots of comic banter, and much social skewering. Wilde, who came to ruin when his homosexuality was brought to light, has a sharp eye for hypocrisy and the artificial poses demanded by society--but political commentary never gets in the way of a smart laugh. Visually sumptuous and briskly paced, An Ideal Husband will satisfy anyone looking for social satire or romantic comedy. --Bret Fetzer

A confirmed bachelor matches wits with a scheming seductress in this star-studded comedy based on the oscar wilde play. Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 01/10/2006 Starring: Rupert Everett Julianne Moore Run time: 98 minutes Rating: Pg13

Jane Eyre

Jane eyre is an orphan cast out as a young girl by her aunt mrs. Reed and sent to be raised in a harsh charity school for girls. There she learns to be come a teacher and eventually seeks employment outside the school. Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 01/04/2005 Starring: Anna Paquin Elle Macpherson Run time: 116 minutes Rating: Pg Director: Franco Zeffirelli

Franco Zeffirelli (Romeo and Juliet) and screenwriter Hugh Whitemore strip away a bit of the familiar romanticism of Charlotte Brontë's novel and come up with a more plain but somehow quite interesting film adaptation. Charlotte Gainsbourg (The Cement Garden) makes for an oddly appealing but deliberately unlovely version of Jane (previous actresses have included Susannah York and Joan Fontaine), and William Hurt is excellent as an equally revised Rochester, brusque and self-involved but not the totem of torment and charisma we've seen before. The story clings to the usual chapters in the book, but with Zeffirelli shaping the principal characters to reflect their cautious perceptions of one another--rather than to a Hollywood notion of grand passion--the film has a wonderful accessibility. Great support from Joan Plowright, Billie Whitelaw, Anna Paquin, and the rest of the cast. --Tom Keogh

The Little Vampire

The Little Vampire is excellently acted and great to look at. Stuart Little's Jonathan Lipnicki carries, on his pint-sized shoulders, his every scene as 8-year-old Tony, befriender of vampires, and the Scottish setting lends itself nicely to spookiness. But where this video earns most points is in the plot department. A continent away from his native California, Tony's having a tough time making new friends when a band of vagabond vampires enters his life through his bedroom window. The encounter seems pure coincidence at first, but then the scary truth surfaces: Tony, though he's not a vampire himself, has "sympathy for our kind," as the dad of the bat-linked brood puts it. Visions of vampire happenings from generations past invade the third-grader's consciousness, and they hold the key to the clan's current gypsy-like predicament. Through his clairvoyance and, by extension, the discovery of a long-lost amulet, the mostly benevolent bloodsuckers are able to reclaim their rightful status as proper cave dwellers in their homeland. Clueless-parent predicaments abound and are cleverer than most--Tony's mom and dad smirk at their son's vampire-obsessed imagination until the cape-draped heads of the clan drop by for a visit--and the gang's adventures eluding a bumbling vampire hunter are genuinely chuckleworthy. At-home Twizzler munchers ages 8 and older won't soon tire of this charmer of a Transylvanian transplant. --Tammy La Gorce

Nine-year-old tony thompson has it tough. Hes in a new country a new school and now every night vampires show up in his dreams. But everythings about to change when tony meets a real vampire and the two become friends right off the bat. Studio: New Line Home Video Release Date: 09/26/2006 Starring: Jonathan Lipnicki Richard E. Grant Run time: 94 minutes Rating: Pg

Uncovered

While restoring an old paiting showing a woman & 2 men playing chess are expert julia discovers the text who killed the knight underneath the paint. The owner of the painting tells her that one of his forefathers was killed. When julias friend is killed she understands there is more to it. Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 08/30/2005 Starring: Kate Beckinsale Paudge Behan Run time: 112 minutes Rating: R

Richard III

This film adaptation of a critically acclaimed stage production of Shakespeare's historical drama stars Ian McKellen in the title role. The setting is a comic-book vision of 1930s London: part art deco, part Third Reich, part industrial-age rust and rot. The play's force is turned into a synthetic high by art directors and storyboard sketchers, all of whom have a field day condensing the material into disposable pop imagery. This is a fun film, more than anything, so infatuated with its own monstrous stitchery that even the most awkward casting (Annette Bening and Robert Downey Jr.) seems a part of the ridiculous design. McKellen is the best thing about the movie, his mesmerizing portrayal of freakish despotism and poisoned desire a thing to behold. Directed by Richard Loncraine (Bellman and True). --Tom Keogh

Richard is a charismatic malcontent who fights for the throne with a delicious mix of treachery seduction and murder. This screen adaption of a shakespeare play has the characters taken out of their original setting and reimagined in europe 1930. Special features: subtitles in french and spanish and much more. Studio: Tcfhe/mgm Release Date: 09/21/2004 Starring: Iam Mckellen Jim Broadbent Run time: 104 minutes Rating: R

Nicholas and Alexandra

Well-acted chronicle of the last russian czar and his family and the revolution that turned their world upside down. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 05/27/2008 Starring: Michael Jayston Janet Suzman Run time: 189 minutes Rating: Pg