Dawson's Creek - The Series Finale (Extended Cut)
by Kerr Smith
from Sony Pictures
With its series-finale episode, Dawson's Creek summed up its six-year run on the WB Network with a sweet and sad tale of reunion and farewell for old friends, soul mates, and lovers. The friends are now 25 and living new lives: Dawson (James Van Der Beek) is in Hollywood executive-producing The Creek, obviously based on his own life and considered "the new hit teen soap at the WB"; Joey (Katie Holmes) is a book editor in New York with a serious beau; Jen (Michelle Williams) is a single mother; Pacey (Joshua Jackson) is the relatively respectable owner of the reborn Icehouse Restaurant; and Jack (Kerr Smith) is teaching at the high school and struggling with his relationship. A wedding brings everyone together in Capeside, but tragedy strikes, and the remaining friends are left to consider their lives and what they want to do with them. Whether or not you agree with the final choices, of course, probably depends on who you've been rooting for.
The extended cut of the finale runs 104 minutes, about 16 longer than when it was broadcast in May 2003. Unlike deleted scenes on movie DVDs, each addition seems like a useful part of the story, and the DVD borrows a helpful feature from the Lord of the Rings extended editions by designating on the chapter menu which scenes are new or extended. Some differences are minor, but there are significant new scenes with Joey at work, Joey and her boyfriend (Jeremy Sisto of Six Feet Under), Joey and Dawson's reunion in Capeside, and Pacey's conversation with old flame Andie (Meredith Monroe).
As they did for two episodes of Dawson's Creek: The Complete First Season, creator Kevin Williamson (who co-wrote the finale) and executive producer Paul Stubin provide a commentary track in which they discuss the new scenes and which characters were originally intended to end up together. There are also four scenes that were filmed for the original pilot presentation (not the finished pilot shown in season one) then reshot. There's a small but important difference in the last scene, Pacey meets Tamara Jacobs in a different video store, and Dawson's dad is played by a different actor before the role was recast with John Wesley Shipp. --David Horiuchi
Part One It s five years later and Dawson Joey Pacey Jen and Jack are reunited in Capeside for Dawson s mom s wedding. But the celebratory mood comes to an end when they receive some heartbreaking news.Part Two As the gang faces a future more uncertain than ever before Joey struggles to come to terms with her true feelings for Dawson Pacey and her current boyfriend. When she finally does she surprises everyone with her decision.System Requirements:Starring: James Van Der Beek Katie Holmes Michelle Williams Joshua Jacskson Oliver Hudson Running Time: 108 Min. Copyright Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 2005Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 043396018563 Manufacturer No: 01856
Crossworlds
by Krishna Rao
from Lions Gate
Star Wars meets A Wrinkle in Time in this adventure of an intergalactic war and one unassuming young man who holds the key to dimensional travel, the legacy of his mysterious adventurer father. Boyish Josh Charles is the lucky Luke Skywalker stand-in, a good-natured underachiever shocked out of his lovelorn moping when gorgeous guerrilla fighter Andrea Roth takes the battle to his bedroom. Rutger Hauer is the coffee-chugging freedom fighter who is roused from retirement to fill out the trio and face dimensional mob boss Stuart Wilson to settle the fate of the universe. This obviously low budget picture makes the most of limited special effects and striking settings--notably an elevator ride that turns into a free-floating mind game hanging in space and a knock-down, drag-out finale that sends our hapless hero popping up all over the universe. Hauer makes for a surprisingly charismatic mercenary turned father figure and Charles is modestly charming, once he loses the smart-ass wisecracks. Though it reaches for a scope that's beyond its means, Crossworlds is an entertaining bit of sci-fi fluff. --Sean Axmaker
The Pretender - TV Starter Set (Season 1, Episodes 1-2)
by Jon Gries
from 20th Century Fox
Crossworlds [Region 2]
Star Wars meets A Wrinkle in Time in this dimension-hopping adventure of an intergalactic war and one unassuming young man who holds the key to dimensional travel, a legacy of his mysterious adventurer father. Boyish Josh Charles is the lucky Luke Skywalker stand-in, a good-natured underachiever shocked out of his lovelorn moping when gorgeous guerrilla fighter Andrea Roth takes the battle to his bedroom. Rutger Hauer is the coffee-chugging freedom fighter roused from retirement to fill out the trio and face dimensional mob boss Stuart Wilson to settle the fate of the universe. This obviously low- budget picture makes the most of limited special effects and striking settings--notably an elevator ride that turns into a free-floating mind-game hanging in space and a knockdown, drag-out finale that sends our hapless hero popping up all over the universe. Hauer makes for a surprisingly charismatic mercenary turned father figure and Charles turns out to be modestly charming, once he loses the smart-ass wisecracks. Though it reaches for a scope that's beyond its means, it remains an entertaining bit of sci-fi fluff. --Sean Axmaker
+++
