Wright, Tom

Weekend at Bernie's II

Yeesh. The dead guy from Weekend at Bernie's is back for the gratuitous sequel, still flopping around in his lifelessness like a wet noodle and getting dragged, stuck, bumped, and subjected to all manner of undignified things the living would never tolerate. Jonathan Silverman and Andrew McCarthy return as hapless businessmen who flee to the Virgin Islands after being accused of embezzlement. For reasons we won't go into, they need Bernie's corpse to get out of a jam. McCarthy is annoyingly mannered, Silverman is on auto-pilot, and the visual jokes--all based on one form of desecration or another--do not strike any resonant black-comedy chords. --Tom Keogh

Murder at 1600

In the midst of an international crisis, a young woman is found murdered at the White House. A Washington DC homicide cop must determine if the coverup is meant to protect the President or to make him look guilty.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: R
Release Date: 16-JUL-2002
Media Type: DVD

There were two movies about murder and the U.S. presidency released in 1997, and when you compare it to Absolute Power, this one is clearly the lesser of the two. That doesn't mean it's a bad movie, but it does make it a mildly disappointing one, and it illustrates the hazards of crafting a film to fit the persona of its leading man. In this case, you've got Wesley Snipes, a young, savvy man of action, playing a Washington, D.C., police detective assigned to investigate the murder of a woman in the White House. The president's son is a prime suspect, but there's a cover-up underway that forces Snipes to intensify his investigation beyond normal parameters. For a while at least, this makes Murder at 1600 a sharp and interesting film, and while the national security advisor (Alan Alda) seems highly cooperative (but don't be so sure), Snipes meets a secret service member (Diane Lane) who shares his belief in a high-level conspiracy. Unfortunately, that's when the film takes a downward plunge, resorting to a series of thriller clichés including an unlikely chase through secret tunnels beneath the White House. We're not suggesting this couldn't happen, but it's the kind of thing you typically see in movies that have run out of original ideas before they're over. Kinda makes you want to watch Absolute Power again, doesn't it? --Jeff Shannon

The Pentagon Wars

From the director of ' 'Made In America' ' and ' 'The Money Pit' ' comes a hilarious look at one of the most expensive blunders in military history. Over 17 years and almost as many billion dollars have gone into devising the B.F.V. There's only one problem. . . it doesn't work.Running Time: 104 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 026359147227

Marked for Death

A DEA agent quits when he feels nothing the law does is working against drug dealers, only to find himself and his family marked for death by some particularly vicious dealers.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: R
Release Date: 6-DEC-2006
Media Type: DVD

The glowering brutality that is aikido headbanger Steven Seagal's substitute for a star persona at least gives us a rancid taste of authenticity in this cookie-cutter action picture. This glum lug seems to really enjoy hurting people; he snaps limbs and shatters noses with visible relish. Pitted against a crew of Jamaican gangsters who invade his (white ethnic) Chicago neighborhood and threaten his family, retired DEA agent John Hatcher sets out to solve the case with robotic efficiency, kicking butt in just about every scene. Not quite as pudgy in this 1990 outing as he became a few films later, Seagal looks like the genuine, lethal article in the fight sequences, but like a hopeless amateur when he tries to act his way out of the waterlogged-paper-bag of a script. So what else is new? The one bright spot here is Basil Wallace, a mostly unsung actor who throws himself into the showy role of the Rasta gang-boss Screwface, a garishly scarred psycho with piercing ice-blue eyes. --David Chute

Reversal of Fortune

One of the most intriguing criminal trials of the 1980s involved Claus von Bülow, who was accused of sending his rich wife Sunny into a permanent coma with an overdose of insulin. Director Barbet Schroeder, working from Nicholas Kazan's evocative, darkly humorous script, turns the story into both a look at the lives of rich folks with too much time on their hands and a whodunit, as lawyer Alan Dershowitz (Ron Silver) prepares to defend von Bülow (Jeremy Irons) in court. Irons won an Oscar for his spooky, knowing performance, which hints at depths of degeneracy without ever putting a dent in a veneer of bored elegance. The contrast between the hard-charging Dershowitz and his eager-beaver Harvard law students and the eternally languid von Bülow adds unexpected humor. --Marshall Fine

Jeremy Irons won the Best Actor Academy Award(R) as socialite Claus von Bulow, seeking legal exoneration in the most sensational attempted murder scandal of the 1980s. Glen Close co-stars. Year: 1990

Gridlock'd

British actor Tim Roth and the rapper Tupac Shakur are an unexpectedly charismatic and refreshing duo in this off-beat buddy movie. Closer than two brothers, these junkie musicians vow to kick their habits after a soul-shattering New Year's Eve. Gridlock'd is fueled by characterization, of which there is plenty, as the two play off one another with such finesse you would never know Shakur had been a relative novice to the acting profession. Off-beat humor lightens a bleak reality as these outcasts run smack against a brutal bureaucracy. Except for a tired subplot meant to jazz up the action, director Vondie Curtis-Hall employs an inventive approach in this sadly ignored theatrical release. --Rochelle O'Gorman

Tales From the Hood

Revenge/horror motif played out again and again and again, but this time with racial implications. Three drug-dealing thugs look for a stash in a funeral parlor and get the grand tour from Mr. Simms, the truly creepy mortician. As they pass the open caskets, Simms relates gruesome stories about the occupants' deaths to the increasingly restless young men. Each one of them falls to the vengeance of the supernatural theme, and it gets truly old. Nothing original is introduced, except that most of the stories take place in an urban setting. Produced by Spike Lee in an attempt to prove that bad horror doesn't discriminate, either. --Keith Simanton

Forget Paris

The romantic life of NBA referee Billy Crystal is on the rebound when he falls for airline employee Debra Winger. Crystal also directs this transatlantic comedy slam dunk with top-notch supporting cast of comedy pros including Joe Mantegna Cathy Moriarty and William Hickey.Running Time: 103 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG-13 UPC: 053939250121

Billy Crystal plays Mickey, a basketball referee who has to accompany his estranged father's body to France, where the old man requested to be buried with the other members of his D-Day platoon. Unfortunately for Mickey, the airline loses his body. Fortunately for Mickey, this leads him to meet Ellen (Debra Winger), an airline executive who takes personal charge of the case and even joins him at the funeral. A whirlwind Paris romance leads to marriage, but that's when the complications begin... The story of Mickey and Ellen's marriage is recounted by their friends (played by Joe Mantegna, Cynthia Stevenson, Julie Kavner, Richard Masur, John Spencer, and Cathy Moriarty) as they wait for Mickey and Ellen to arrive at a dinner party. And of course these friends have their own stories, which are played out in witty shorthand as they bicker about who's going to tell the next part of the Mickey/Ellen saga. Forget Paris is uneven (unsurprisingly, Winger is stronger in the dramatic sections and Crystal in the comic parts, a schism that takes its toll on their chemistry), but its best parts hold up, even if the whole is shaky. Plus, the movie's theme (that romantic memories aren't what makes a marriage work, you have to live in the present) is explored with conviction and tenderness. --Bret Fetzer

Barbershop (Special Edition)

The comedic adventures of the staff of one of Chicago's South Side barbershops.
Genre: Feature Film Urban Comedy
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 13-JAN-2004
Media Type: DVD

With enough lively banter to keep its customers happy for years, Barbershop is a loose, lanky comedy with its heart--and its humor--in all the right places. Ice Cube plays Calvin, reluctant heir to his late father's barbershop on Chicago's South Side--a neighborhood institution that seems like a trap for a guy with bigger dreams. But Calvin is devoted to his employees and local customers, and when he makes an ill-considered deal with a loan shark (Keith David), the future of the barbershop hangs in the balance. There's a goofy subplot involving a stolen cash machine, but what gives Barbershop its abundant charm is its compassionate, feel-good vibe for its likable characters--not just scene-stealer Cedric the Entertainer (as Eddie the veteran barber, whose shaving lesson is a shining pearl of wisdom), but the entire well-chosen cast. It may seem like a lot of casual rap, but look and listen closely, and Barbershop will reward you with its danceable rhythms of life. --Jeff Shannon

Rampage: The Hillside Strangler Murders

Based on a true story, prepare to relive the terrifying rampage of the Hillside Strangler as psychiatrist Samantha Stone (Brittany Daniel, White Chicks, Joe Dirt, Club Dread) interviews Kenneth Bianchi (Clifton Collins, Jr., Mindhunters, Tigerland, The Rules of Attraction) to try and decipher the motivations behind his frightening reign of fear.