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3/29/05 V9.13

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ONVIDEO'S WEEKLY GUIDE TO HOME VIDEO RELEASES
FOR TUESDAY, March 29 -- MONDAY, April 4

AFTER THE SUNSET
This high-stakes action comedy begins where most heist movies end
-- with a pair of master thieves escaping to a tropical paradise
to enjoy the spoils of their labor. But when an FBI agent, who
has pursued them for seven years, becomes convinced that they are
actually plotting to pull off a million-dollar theft from a
nearby "diamond cruise," a riveting game of cat and mouse begins.
Max "The King of Alibis" Burdett (Pierce Brosnan) and his
beautiful accomplice Lola (Salma Hayek) have come to Paradise
Island in the Bahamas, fresh off their final big score in which
they lifted the second of the three famous Napoleon diamonds.
With their financial future set, the couple is ready to relax and
enjoy their hard-earned riches. But Stan (Woody Harrelson), the
FBI agent who has spent years in dogged but failed pursuit of
Max, refuses to believe that his nemesis is actually calling it
quits. He thinks that Max and Lola are actually plotting to steal
the third Napoleon diamond -- one of the three largest non-flawed
diamonds in the world -- which is coincidentally scheduled to
arrive on Paradise Island as part of a touring cruise ship
exhibition. Since he has no jurisdiction in the Caribbean
country, Stan teams with a local cop (Naomie Harris) and sets out
to catch the sly Max and Lola in the act, while at the same time
a local gangster (Don Cheadle) has his own plans for the diamond.
When the longtime adversaries meet up in paradise, Max quickly
turns the tables and befriends the frustrated detective, showing
him that Paradise Island has no shortage of pleasures to offer.
But in order for Stan to figure out exactly what Max and Lola are
up to, he will have to navigate all the twists and double-crosses
of friendship, suspicion and thievery. Director: Brett Ratner.
Stars: Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek, Woody Harrelson, Don Cheadle,
Naomie Harris, Chris Penn, Mykelti Williamson, Obba Babatunde.
2004, CC, MPAA rating: PG-13, 97 min., Caper comedy, Box office
gross: $28.287 million, New Line, No VHS SRP, Priced for rental.
DVD: Day & Date.

CLOSER
A witty, romantic, and very dangerous love story about chance
meetings, instant attractions, and casual betrayals. "Closer" is
director Mike Nichols' critically acclaimed look at four
strangers -- Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Clive
Owen -- with one thing in common: each other. Two couples meet,
cheat and deceive each other in this adaptation of Patrick
Marber's award-winning stage production. Director: Mike Nichols.
Stars: Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Julia Roberts, Clive Owen.
2004, CC, MPAA rating: R, 104 min., Drama, Box office gross:
$33.987 million, Sony, No VHS SRP, Priced for rental. DVD: Day &
Date.

TALE OF TWO SISTERS, A
Once upon a time, two little girls were sent to live with their
wicked stepmother in the country. Su-Mi and Su-Yeon have had to
go away for a little while because they've been sick, but now
they're back in the family home, deep in the countryside and at
the mercy of their seriously nutty stepmom, Eun-Joo. Director Kim
Jee-Woon spends the first half of his movie building up the
quiet, stately rhythms of family life, but if you listen
carefully you can hear something rotten and dead scrabbling away
beneath the floorboards. Lulled into a state of semi-hypnosis,
the audience is barely prepared for the series of narrative depth
charges director Kim begins to detonate, starting with one of the
most surreal and uncomfortable dinner parties ever put onscreen.
The screen pulses with radioactive earth tones as floral
wallpaper creeps across every available surface. As the ghosts
begin to crawl out of the closet, and as the house itself seems
to shimmer with malevolence we learn that nothing is what it
seems, that appearances can be lethally deceiving, and that the
ghosts of our past sins will haunt us forever. Based on a famous
Korean folktale. Kim's psychological horror movie is the highest
grossing Korean horror movie ever made and it's the first Korean
horror flick to be given a full theatrical release in the United
States. In Korean with English subtitles. Director: Kim Jee-woon.
Stars: Soo-jung Im, Geun-young Moon. 2003, CC, MPAA rating: R,
115 min., Horror, Tartan Video Asia Extreme. DVD: Only.

VERA DRAKE
Vera Drake (Imelda Staunton) is a beloved wife and mother who is
completely devoted to, and loved by, her working class family.
Vera spends her days cleaning houses for money and caring for her
sick neighbor and elderly mother. But Vera also performs another
duty that her family doesn't know about -- she secretly visits
women and helps them induce miscarriages for unwanted
pregnancies. While the practice itself was illegal in 1950s
England, Vera sees herself as simply helping women in need and
always does so with a smile and kind words of encouragement. When
tragedy befalls a young client of Vera's, the truth comes out,
and Vera's world and family life rapidly unravel. Director: Mike
Leigh. Stars: Imelda Staunton, Phil Davis, Peter Wight, Adrian
Scarborough, Heather Craney, Richard Graham, Eddie Marsan. 2004,
CC, MPAA rating: R, 125 min., Drama, Box office gross: $2.842
million, New Line. DVD: Only.


For more release info, check out our calendar pages at
<http://www.onvideo.org/calendar.htm>


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NEWS

DVD COLLECTIBLES:
The Criterion Collection will release this week a Special Edition
Double-Disc Set of director Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece
"Kagemusha" (1980). The ravishing movie has been restored with a
high-definition digital transfer and enhanced for widescreen
televisions. Extras include commentary by Kurosawa scholar
Stephen Prince; a 40-minute documentary on the making of
"Kagemusha"; "Helping a Master: Coppola, Lucas, and Kagemusha,"
featuring new video interviews with executive producers Francis
Ford Coppola and George Lucas; and much much more; $39.95

FROM TV TO VIDEO:
Remember "The Saint"? No, not the weak 1997 Val Kilmer big screen
Saint, nor the 1989 TV movies, but the 1960s swingin' London
Roger Moore Saint. Well, the folks at A&E Home Video -- who have
previously released the series' color episodes (which began
airing in 1967) of Leslie Charteris' modern day suave Robin Hood
-- have gone back to the vaults and released all 12 rare black
and white episodes from the series 1962 debut season. The wittily
written stories -- packed with action and filmed at exotic
locales -- still hold up after all these years. Moore was at his
best here as Simon Templar, a mystery man with a heart of gold
who had a keen eye for injustice and damsels in distress. The
$59.95 three-disc set lacks any extras, but who cares when the
stories take you back to an era when chivalry still ruled the TV
airwaves. Here's hoping A&E will soon release the remainder of
the series (which ended in 1969) .. A&E will also release on DVD
this week the fabulous and instructive History Channel
documentary "The French Revolution," a 100-minute look at the
revolution that transformed Europe, with interviews with
scholars, dramatic re-creations and paintings; narrated by Edward
Herrmann. If your high school or college history is hazy on this
transforming milestone of Western civilization, be prepared to
relive the events of July 14, 1789 and after, and refresh your
memories of Robespierre, Danton and Marat; $24.95 ... Acorn Media
will release "Hetty Wainthropp: Missing Persons," the pilot
episode of the popular PBS Mystery series about the middle-aged,
middle-class matron sleuth (played by Patricia Routledge). This
feature -- adapted from the novel by David Cook -- aired six
years before the launch of the series, and has never aired in
North America; $24.95.

Other TV releases due this week: "America's Next Top Model: Cycle
One," a three-disc set with nine episodes, under $30 from
Paramount ... "Dark Shadows DVD Collection 17," a four-disc set
with 40 episodes, $59.98 from MPI Home Video ... "Hustle," a 2004
biodrama, directed by Peter Bogdanovich and starring Tom Sizemore
and George DiCenzo, about Pete Rose, from Buena Vista ... "The
Lone Gunmen: The Complete Series," a three-disc set with all 13
episodes of the "X-Files" spinoff, $39.98 from Fox ... "Murder,
She Wrote: Season One," a three-disc set with 21 episodes,
$49.98, from Universal ... "Poirot 12 Collector's Set," three
hour-long episodes ("The King of Clubs," "The Dream" and "The
Incredible Theft") from the popular TV series starring David
Suchet as Agatha Christie's sartorially elegant sleuth, $29.99
from Acorn Media ... "A Touch of Frost Season 5," $49.98 from MPI
Home Video.

BUZZIN' THE 'B's:
Jean Reno returns as French Inspector Pierre Niemans in "Crimson
Rivers: Angels of the Apocalypse" (2004), an exciting (and at
times gory) thriller (and sequel to the 2000 "Crimson Rivers") in
which the detective must investigate the ritual murders of the 12
members of a religious sect whose deaths foretell the coming of
the Apocalypse. Reno, as ever, is incredibly watchable, and the
plot has enough twists and turns to keep you on the edge of your
seat; on DVD from Sony ... "Ring of Darkness" (2004) is a gothic
thriller about an unearthly rock band who must recruit a new
member to replace their missing lead singer, starring Ryan Starr
and Adrienne Barbeau, from horror-meister David DeCoteau, on VHS
and DVD from First Look Home Entertainment ... In "Remedy"
(2005), a New York City artist thinks he has witnessed his best
friend's murder -- but due to a drug problem he can't recall what
happened. Now he's the lead suspect in the murder investigation.
Stars Frank Vincent, Vincent Pastore, and Christian Maelen; on
VHS and DVD from MTI Home Video ... "Malibu Spring Break" (2003)
is a kind of updated "Beach Blanket Bingo," starring Charity
Rahmer, Kristin Novak and Playboy Playmate Pilar Lastra, about a
pair of Arizona girls who head out West for a spring break of
fun; from Vanguard Cinema on DVD.

FOREIGN:
Facets Video has this week "Eroica" (1957), the second DVD
release in the rediscovery of overlooked and underappeciated
Polish filmmaker Andrzej Munk, who led the "Polish School" of
filmmakers in the late 1950s and 1960s; and "Pearls of the Deep"
(1965), a compilation of work by five directors of the Czech New
Wave," including Jiri Menzel, Jaromil Jires, Vera Chytilova, Jan
Nemec, and Evald Schorm; both have $29.95 price tags ... Empire
Pictures will release "Almost Peaceful" (2004), a French drama
set in post-WWII Paris that follows the lives of a group of
Jewish workers who attempt to restart their lives and rekindle
their happiness in the shadow of the unspeakable horrors of the
war; on $26.98 DVD.

ON THE INDIE FRONT:
Facets Video will release this week "Sonic Outlaws," a 1995 over-
the-edge documentary that looks at the issues involved in the
appropriation and fair use of recorded material, revolving around
the band Negativland's parody of U2 and Casey Kasem and the legal
controversies over intellectual property; and "Spectres of the
Spectrun" (1999), in which agitprop director Craig Baldwin (who
put together "Sonic Outlaws") weaves together footage from early
TV shows, educational films, Hollywood movies, advertisements and
cartoons with live-action footage and no-budget special effects
to create a paranoid science fiction epic set in the year 2007;
both releases are priced at $24.95 each.

FOR THE KIDS:
A&E Home Video will release a two-disc set with 13 episodes of
the stop-motion animated series "The Wind in the Willows: The
Complete First Series," $29.95.


------------------------------------------------------------

THIS WEEK'S DVD RELEASES:

Weekly listings of DVD releases can now be viewed on mobile
devices at www.tagtag.com/onvideo

** After the Sunset (2004) Dir.: Brett Ratner; Pierce Brosnan,
Salma Hayek, Woody Harrelson, Don Cheadle, Naomie Harris, Chris
Penn, Mykelti Williamson, Obba Babatunde. Extras: Commentary by
Ratner, deleted/alternate scenes, blooper reel, "Before, During
and After the Sunset" documentary, "Interview With a Jewel Thief"
featurette. (New Line).
** Almost Peaceful (2004 - French) Dir.: Michel Deville; Simon
Abkarian, Zabou Nreitmann. (Empire Pictures).
** America's Next Top Model: Cycle One. Three-disc set with nine
episodes, under $30. (Paramount).
** Apollo 13 Anniversary Edition (1995) Dir.: Ron Howard; Tom
Hanks, Bill Paxton, Ed Harris, Gary Sinise, Kevin bacon, Kathleen
Quinlan. Two-disc set with both the theatrical and Imax versions.
Extras: Commentary by Howard, commentary by Jim and Marilyn
Lovell, "Lost Moon: The Triumph of Apollo 13" making-of
featurette, production notes, "Conquering Space: The Moon and
Beyond" recap featurette of the past 45 years in space, "Lucky
13: The Astronauts' Story" documentary recounting the events of
the mission. (Universal).
** Astro Boy: The Complete Series. Five-disc set with all 50
Episodes (29 Never Seen in North America), $49.95. Extras: "The
Making of Astro Boy" featurette. (Sony).
** Blue Chips (1994) Dir.: William Friedkin; Nick Nolte, Mary
McDonnell, J.T. Walsh, Ed O'Neil, Alfre Woodard, Bob Cousy,
Shaquille O'Neal. (Paramount).
** Closer (2004) Dir.: Mike Nichols; Natalie Portman, Jude Law,
Julia Roberts, Clive Owen. (Sony).
** Crimson Rivers: Angels of the Apocalypse (2004 -- French) Jean
Reno, Benoit Magimel, Christopher Lee. (Sony).
** Dark Shadows DVD Collection 17. Four-disc set with 40
episodes, $59.98. (MPI Home Video).
** The French Revolution (2005) History Channel two-hour look at
the revolution that transformed Europe, with interviews with
scholars, dramatic re-creations, paintings; narrated by Edward
Herrmann. Extras: "The Making of the French Revolution"
featurette. (A&E Home Video).
** Hustle (2004 -- TV) Dir.: Peter Bogdanovich; Tom Sizemore,
George DiCenzo. Extras: ABC Primetime Live With Charlie Gibson
news feature on Pete Rose, ESPN Classic SportsCentury interview
with Pete Rose, Bartlett Giamatti press conference "The
Banishment for Life," excerpts from Paul Janszen interview with
ESPN, Tommy Gioiosa on Pete Rose, John Dowd interview on ESPN
(The author of the Dowd Report on Pete Rose), ESPN Classic
SportsCentury interview with John Dowd. (Buena Vista).
** Islands in the Stream (1977) George C. Scott, David Hemmings,
Claire Bloom, Gilbert Roland, Susan Tyrell. (Paramount).
** Kagemusha (Special Edition Double-Disc Set) (1980) Dir.: Akira
Kurosawa; Tatsuya Nakadai, Kenichi Hagiwara, Daisuke Ryu, Tsutomu
Yamazaki, Jinpachi Nezu, Masayuki Yui. Restored high-definition
digital tansfer, enhanced for widescreen televisions, $39.95.
Extras: Commentary by Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince ("The
Warrior's Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa"); 40-minute
documentary on the making of "Kagemusha," part of Toho
Masterworks series "Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create";
"Helping a Master: Coppola, Lucas, and Kagemusha," new video
interviews with executive producers Francis Ford Coppola and
George Lucas; "Image: Kurosawa's Continuity," a new video piece
that reconstructs "Kagemusha" through Kurosawa's paintings and
sketches; booklet featuring new essays by scholars Darrell Davis
and Peter Grilli and biographical sketches by Japanese film
historian Donald Richie. (The Criterion Collection).
** Lady in a Cage (1964) Olivia de Havilland, James Caan.
(Paramount).
** The Lone Gunmen: The Complete Series. Three-disc set with all
13 episodes of the "X-Files" spinoff, $39.98. Extras: "Making-of"
documentary. (Fox).
** Malibu Spring Break (2003) Charity Rahmer, Kristin Novak,
Pilar M. Lastra. (Vanguard Cinema).
** Murder, She Wrote: Season One. Three-disc set with 21
episodes, $49.98. Extras: Pilot movie "The Murder of Sherlock
Holmes." (Universal).
** Orgazmo Special Edition (1997) Dir.: Trey Parker; Trey Parker,
Dian Bachar, Robyn Lynne Raab, Michael Dean Jacobs, Ron Jeremy,
Andrew Kemler, David Dunn, Matt Stone. Theatrical version plus an
unrated, uncensored version. Extras: Three commentaries,
outtakes, deleted scenes, interviews, documentary, Easter eggs.
(Universal).
** Poirot 12 Collector's Set. Three hour-long episodes ("The King
of Clubs," "The Dream" and "The Incredible Theft"), $29.99.
(Acorn Media).
** The Saint: The Early Episodes, Set 1. Three-disc set with all
12 rare black and white episodes from the first season (1962),
$59.95. Extras: "The History of the Saint" featurette, photo
gallery, more. (A&E Home Video).
** A Tale of Two Sisters (2003 -- Korea) Dir.: Kim Jee-woon; Soo-
jung Im, Geun-young Moon. Available as a single-disc and two-disc
set, DTS Surround. Extras: Two-disc set: Commentary by director,
cinematographer, and lighting director; commentary by director
and stars; Easter egg; behind-the-scenes footage; cast
interviews; deleted scenes; director's analysis featurette;
psychiatrist perspective featurette. (Tartan Video Asia Extreme).
** A Touch of Frost Season 5. $49.98. (MPI Home Video).
** Vera Drake (2004) Dir.: Mike Leigh; Imelda Staunton, Phil
Davis, Peter Wight, Adrian Scarborough, Heather Craney, Richard
Graham, Eddie Marsan. (New Line).
** The Wind in the Willows: The Complete First Series. Two-disc
set with 13 episodes of the stop-motion animated series, $29.95.
(A&E Home Video).

For more DVD info, check out our DVD calendar pages at
<http://www.onvideo.org/calendar/cal_dvd.htm>


------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright 2005 CyberPod. All rights reserved.
ISSN 1094-3676

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