Parenthood

Chocolat (Miramax Collector's Series)

A wanderer and her daughter open a chocolate shop in a straight-laced French Catholic village during Lent.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 21-MAY-2002
Media Type: DVD

With movies like Chocolat, it's always best to relax your intellectual faculties and absorb the abundant sensual pleasures, be it the heart-stopping smile of chocolatier Juliette Binoche as she greets a new customer, an intoxicating cup of spiced hot cocoa, or the soothing guitar of an Irish gypsy played by Johnny Depp. Adapted by Robert Nelson Jacobs from Joanne Harris's popular novel and lovingly directed by Lasse Hallström, the film covers familiar territory and deals in broad metaphors that even a child could comprehend, so it's no surprise that some critics panned it with killjoy fervor. Their objections miss the point. Familiarity can be comforting and so can easy metaphors when placed in a fable that's as warmly inviting as this one.

Driven by fate, Vianne (Binoche) drifts into a tranquil French village with her daughter Anouk (Victoire Thivisol, from Ponette) in the winter of 1959. Her newly opened chocolatier is a source of attraction and fear, since Vianne's ability to revive the villagers' passions threatens to disrupt their repressive traditions. The pious mayor (Alfred Molina) sees Vianne as the enemy, and his war against her peaks with the arrival of "river rats" led by Roux (Depp), whose attraction to Vianne is immediate and reciprocal. Splendid subplots involve a battered wife (Lena Olin), a village elder (Judi Dench), and her estranged daughter (Carrie-Anne Moss), and while the film's broader strokes may be regrettable (if not for Molina's rich performance, the mayor would be a caricature), its subtleties are often sublime. Chocolat reminds you of life's simple pleasures and invites you to enjoy them. --Jeff Shannon

Bill Cosby, Himself

After I Spy and before The Cosby Show, Bill Cosby left his own inimitable mark on the arena of stand-up comedy in this live concert showcasing his down-to-earth observations on the rigors and joys of family life. Cosby, using only a microphone and a chair, discusses his take on raising kids and the illogical nature of children and the futility of trying to argue with a child that in the end may be smarter than you. Notable highlights include Cosby's ruminations on the meaning of the all-purpose phrase "I don't know" to kids, and Cosby describing the effect raising children has on his wife Camille's mental state and the pitch of her voice. Containing the basis for the humor of his long-running situation comedy, Bill Cosby: Himself is a polished, occasionally insightful, and frequently hilarious night of comedy from one of the longtime masters of the form. --Robert Lane

One of America's most popular comedians, Bill Cosby treats his fans to a funny, satirical and heart-warming concert at Toronto's Hamilton Place Performing Arts Center. His material ranges from marriage and the unending trials of parenthood, to the side-splitting antics of the very young, and a hilarious encounter with a dentist's drill and needle. Insightful and witty, this highly entertaining film is a rare cinematic treat, filled with all the spontaneity and electricity that only a live performance can provide.

Sordid Lives

If you've got a taste for big hair, broad Texas accents, and gay rights, this mixture of white-trash comedy and coming-out melodrama is for you. Sordid Lives starts out as chicken-fried farce, as a funeral is prepared for a woman who died when she tripped over her adulterous lover's wooden legs; about midway the emphasis shifts to a drag queen unfairly held in a mental institution and the dead woman's grandson, an actor in Los Angeles who hasn't come out to his mother. The tone shifts wildly, and the humor depends on your fondness for the white-trash genre--if you like it, this will tickle your ribs; if you don't, it'll fall flat as the panhandle landscape. But it must be said that the cast (including Bonnie Bedelia, Beau Bridges, Delta Burke, and Olivia Newton-John) dives right in, no matter how over-the-top their characters get. --Bret Fetzer

Get ready for laughs the size of Texas when Olivia Newton-John, Beau Bridges, Bonnie Bedelia and Delta Burke lead an all-star cast in this twisted, white-trash tale "that puts the 'fun' in 'dysfunctional'" (Toronto Sun). The hilariously sordid details about a southern family surface with a vengeance when relatives converge for the funeral of "Grandma Peggy," who died after tripping over her lover's wooden legs! Toss in a couple of feuding, big-haired daughters, a jumpy aunt who just quit smoking, the scorned neighbor from hell, and crazy, cross-dressing "Brother Boy" - and you've got an outrageous "train wreck you can't help but watch!" (Chicago Tribune)

Father of the Bride (15th Anniversary Edition)

A befuddled father has a hard time letting go of his young daughter as she plans her wedding.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG
Release Date: 7-JUN-2005
Media Type: DVD

This '90s update of the Spencer Tracy-Elizabeth Taylor hit is a mix of the pleasant and the silly, a nice enough movie but a little too controlled to become particularly interesting. Steve Martin plays the aging patriarch who is threatened by his daughter's engagement and not-quite-willing to let her go. The writing-directing team of Charles Shyer and Nancy Meyers provides Martin's character with a perhaps too-broad range of comic responsiveness to the situation, some of it gentle (a ritual game of basketball between dad and his little girl) and some of it slapstick (Martin sneaking around his prospective in-laws' house and encountering a guard dog). Martin Short turns up as a wedding coordinator--which has deliriously delicious possibilities--but his inventiveness doesn't quite strike the chord this time. --Tom Keogh

Father of the Bride 2

Just when a father is getting used to his daughter being married, he finds out that he will become a grandfather for the first time as well as a father again!
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG
Release Date: 25-JAN-2005
Media Type: DVD

Everybody important from the first film, including the writing-directing team of Charles Shyer and Nancy Meyers, regroups for this sequel involving a pair of pregnancies. Steve Martin's patriarch has a crisis when his married daughter (Kimberly Williams) is with child, and an even bigger one when his middle-aged wife (Diane Keaton) announces that another bambino is on the way. Martin Short is more effectively used this time around (he played the wedding coordinator in the first film), and while this movie's inevitable climax has both women giving birth on the same chaotic night, the overall effect of the film is less contrived than its predecessor. --Tom Keogh

Bye Bye Birdie

Lots of laughs and great songs have made this all-time favorite based on the hit Broadway show one of the most memorable musicals of all time. When rock star and teenage heart-throb Conrad Birdie gets drafted the nation's teenagers go haywire and Conrad's manager Albert (Dick Van Dyke) faces unemployment. So Albert and his girlfriend (Janet Leigh) organize a nationwide contest in which one lucky girl wins a farewell kiss from Conrad on the Ed Sullivan Show. Kim McAfee (Ann-Margret) turns outto be the lucky teenager and Conrad's whole entourage moves into her quiet Midwestern home much tothe chagrin of her ever irritable father (Paul Lynde) and her jealous boyfriend (Bobby Rydell). Theresult is chaos and a series of hilarious romantic complications.System Requirements:Running Time: 112 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY/CLASSICS Rating: NR UPC: 043396015098 Manufacturer No: 01509

When Elvis-like rock & roll star Conrad Birdie is drafted into the military, the teen nation is united by a contest in which the winner bestows a farewell kiss upon their idol while on the Ed Sullivan Show. Ann-Margret (in her film debut) is the lucky little lady from Sweet Apple, Ohio, who wins the contest, much to the chagrin of her steady beau (Bobby Rydell) and miserable parents (Paul Lynde and Mary LaRoche). Dick Van Dyke and Janet Leigh are an older couple kept from marrying by his meddlesome mother, played to the hilt by Maureen Stapleton. Lightweight but fun, this features an exuberant soundtrack with such memorable ditties as "Put on a Happy Face" and "Kids" and the title track. This is a much better choice than the lackluster, 1995 made-for-TV version. --Rochelle O'Gorman

Austin Powers in Goldmember

Austin Powers is called to action again when his father is kidnapped by his arch enemy Dr. Evil and the mysterious Goldmember.Running Time: 92 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 794043607820

Despite symptoms of sequelitis, Austin Powers in Goldmember is must-see lunacy for devoted fans of the shagadelic franchise. Unfortunately, the law of diminishing returns is in full effect: for every big-name cameo and raunchy double-entendre, there's an equal share of redundant shtick, juvenile scatology, and pop-cultural spoofery. All is forgiven when the hilarity level is consistently high, and Mike Myers--returning here as randy Brit spy Austin, his nemesis Dr. Evil, the bloated Scottish henchman Fat Bastard, and new Dutch disco-villain Goldmember--thrives by favoring comedic chaos over coherent plotting. Once they've tossed Austin into the disco fever of 1975 (where he's sent to rescue his father, gamely played by Michael Caine), Myers and director Jay Roach seem vaguely adrift with old and new characters, including Verne Troyer's Mini-Me and pop star Beyoncé Knowles as Pam Grier-ish blaxpo-babe Foxxy Cleopatra. A bit tired, perhaps, but Powers hasn't lost his mojo. --Jeff Shannon

Better Than Chocolate

Better than Chocolate is a sexy romp of love and lust with surprising results. Maggie (Karyn Dwyer) meets the woman of her dreams Kim (Christina Cox) just hours before her mother Lila (Wendy Crewson) and brother Paul (Kevin Mundy) move in with her. When the four end up sharing a loft Maggie believes she must keep her affair a secret but it is Maggie's clandestine romance that inadvertently introduces her family to a host of new experiences all of which are potentially better than chocolate.Features: Dolby Stereo Letter-Box Director Commentary English Spanish and French Subtitle Trailer Scene AccessInteractive MenusFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: R UPC: 031398725336 Manufacturer No: 71178

Many lesbian movies are long on charm and short on production values; Better Than Chocolate has a solid dose of both and steamy sex scenes to boot. Our heroine Maggie (Karyn Dwyer), a clerk at a lesbian bookstore, meets footloose butch Kim (Christina Cox) and, after Kim's van is towed away, they move in together. Unfortunately for their romantic bliss, Maggie's mother, Lila (Wendy Crewson), and teenage brother move in that very evening thanks to Lila's impending divorce. But what really complicates matters is that Maggie can't bring herself to come out to her mother; even when she tries, Lila steamrolls through the conversation, like she knows what's coming and doesn't want to hear it. Interwoven with this is the struggle of Judy (Peter Outerbridge), a male-to-female transsexual who's in love with the bookstore's owner, Frances (Ann-Marie MacDonald), who's freaking out because customs officers are holding a list of books at the border that they claim are obscene. The overlapping plots are deftly juggled, the personal and political are compellingly interwoven, and, most satisfying of all, the characters have problems that aren't going to be easily resolved. A handful of candy-colored lip-synching musical numbers give the movie some flash and the sex scenes give the movie some heat, but it's the elements of sorrow and ambiguity that really make the joy in Better Than Chocolate something to savor. --Bret Fetzer

Raising Arizona

An ex-con and his wife set out to kidnap a baby when they find they can't have or adopt one of their own.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 1-FEB-2005
Media Type: DVD

Blood Simple made it clear that the cinematically precocious Coen brothers (writer-director Joel and writer-producer Ethan) were gifted filmmakers to watch out for. But it was the outrageously farcical Raising Arizona that announced the Coens' darkly comedic audacity to the world. It wasn't widely seen when released in 1987, but its modest audience was vocally supportive, and this hyperactive comedy has since developed a large and loyal following. It's the story of "Ed" (for Edwina, played by Holly Hunter), a policewoman who falls in love with "Hi" (for H.I. McDonnough, played by Nicolas Cage) while she's taking his mug shots. She's infertile and he's a habitual robber of convenience stores, and their folksy marital bliss depends on settling down with a rug rat. Unable to conceive, they kidnap one of the newsworthy quintuplets born to an unpainted-furniture huckster named Nathan Arizona (Trey Wilson), who quickly hires a Harley-riding mercenary (Randall "Tex" Cobb) to track the baby's whereabouts. What follows is a full-throttle comedy that defies description, fueled by the Coens' lyrical redneck dialogue, the manic camerawork of future director Barry Sonnenfeld, and some of the most inventively comedic chase scenes ever filmed. Some will dismiss the comedy for being recklessly over-the-top; others will love it for its clever mix of slapstick action, surreal fantasy, and homespun family values. One thing's for sure--this is a Coen movie from start to finish, and that makes it undeniably unique. --Jeff Shannon

Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation

James Stewart reunites with his Harvey director, Henry Koster, in this 1962 comedy, which is charming enough even though it doesn't seem quite up to the level of talent involved. (The screenwriter is the legendary Nunnally Johnson--writer and director of The Three Faces of Eve, among many other titles--and the music is by Henry Mancini.) But it is pleasant, summery entertainment with Stewart and his screen wife, Maureen O'Hara, taking their urban family to a crumbling, seaside house for a vacation. The film was calculated to pull in older fans with Stewart as well as draw in a younger crowd that would enjoy the fairly extensive beach scenes with pop-star Fabian. Stewart is deft with the easy jokes about bad plumbing and such, and golden in several nice moments where he gets to play an attentive dad to his kids. --Tom Keogh

When James Stewart decides to take his family on vacation in California, he needs another vacation to recover. Co-stars Fabian.