Videos

New on video

XX 1/2 "In & Out." Trendy studio comedy about a fussy high-school teacher (Kevin Kline) who is accidentally outed when one of his former students wins an Oscar. The movie wants to be a contemporary blend of Frank Capra and Preston Sturges, but it's too big and broad. Nevertheless, it's entertaining and sometimes irresistibly funny. Confused, rubber-faced Joan Cusack, in the role of Kline's fiancee, all but steals the show. She's been nominated for an Oscar for best supporting actress. - Mary Brennan

XX "The Peacemaker." DreamWorks' first feature is a so-so action film about an intelligence officer (George Clooney) and a nuclear arms expert (Nicole Kidman) who team up to outwit nuclear terrorists. The director, "E.R." veteran Mimi Leder, tries to give the material dramatic weight through the use of a Romanian actor, Marcel Iures, who plays a Bosnian widower with a tragic past and a vengeful nature. His agenda could have been the subject of a more substantial movie, though it would probably have to be told from his point of view. That way, at least, we could be spared the gratuitous suggestion that all this excitement is being generated merely to heighten the sexual chemistry between Clooney and Kidman.

XXX 1/2 "East Side Story." One of the nonfiction treats of last year's Seattle International Film Festival was this German tribute to the absurd socialist musicals that were once produced behind the Iron Curtain. There's a hint of Busby Berkeley and Deanna Durbin in a series of all-singing, all-dancing 1930s Soviet farming movies that were aimed at creating an alternative to harsh economic realities. The wide-screen Russian youth movies of the 1960s suggest the summer-holiday musicals Cliff Richard was turning out in England at the same time. The lyrics are hopelessly trite (they're almost always celebrating the weather or the harvest), but are they any worse than the banalities Frankie and Annette were singing at the time?

X 1/2 "A Life Less Ordinary." The once-inspired Scottish team that created "Trainspotting" is also responsible for this gross, violent, nearly laughless American road comedy about a runaway heiress (Cameron Diaz) who joins a fired janitor (Ewan McGregor) in defying her wealthy father (Ian Holm). Holly Hunter and Delroy Lindo are miscast as angels who try to get them together.

XX "Kicked in the Head." Kevin Corrigan plays a charmless slacker in this tepid New York crime comedy, which he also co-wrote. The cast includes Lili Taylor, James Woods and Michael Rapaport, but only Linda Fiorentino brings it to life with her role as a caustic flight attendant. - John Hartl

Also new in stores

Today - "Great Destinations - Grant and Sherman," "Historic Traveler: Great Destinations," Mary Haverstick's "Shades of Black," Margaret Gilpin's "Butterflies on the Scaffold," "Playboy's Voluptuous Vixens II."

Tuesday - "Pappyland," "Ferngully 2: The Magical Rescue," Sean Penn in "She's So Lovely," Mira Sorvino in "Mimic," Willem Dafoe in "The Night and the Moment," Robert Carlyle in "The Full Monty," Aaron Eckhart in "In the Company of Men," Sergei Grinkov in "My Sergei," Roma Downey in "Touched by an Angel: Amazing Grace," Michael Crawford in "Some Mothers Do 'Ave Em!," Aidan Quinn in "The Assignment," "Barney in Outer Space," "Journey Home: The Animals of Farthing Wood," "Kindred: The Embraced," "We Are Not Alone: UFO Diaries," "The Ray Bradbury Chronicles: The Martian Episodes," David Janssen in "The Fugitive" (selected episodes), "Lost in Space - Wave II."

New on DVD

XXX "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (MGM Home Entertainment, $25). This letterboxed treatment of Sergio Leone's wide-screen Clint Eastwood Western will also be released in a few weeks on laserdisc. The DVD includes 14 minutes of deleted scenes from the original Italian version; they're presented separately from the 161-minute version that's become the standard version since its 1966 release. They were part of an earlier Italian version, and they're shown in Italian with English subtitles. The rest of the movie is in English, though there's an alternate French track.

New on laserdisc

XXXX "Sunrise" (Twentieth Century Fox Home Enteratinment, $50). Imported from Germany to lend class to Hollywood's new Fox studio, the great expressionist filmmaker, F.W. Murnau, did exactly that with this affecting, visually intoxicating 1927 masterpiece about a troubled young country couple (George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor) whose marital bonds are renewed during a day in the city. It won the first Academy Awards for best actress (Gaynor) and cinematography (by Charles Rosher and Karl Struss), as well as the first and only Oscar for "artistic quality of production." The laserdisc of this silent classic includes the original synchronized score on the analog track, plus a stereo recording of Olympia composer Timothy Brock's fine new score on the digital track. There's also a supplementary section including alternate takes and a brief examination of how the special effects were achieved.

Screen gems

John Hartl's tips for when the New Releases bin is bare:

1. XXX "The Iron Mask." Douglas Fairbanks Sr. plays D'Artagnan in this silent 1929 version of the Alexandre Dumas swashbuckler, directed by Allan Dwan. Leonardo DiCaprio stars in the latest adaptation, which opens in theaters tomorrow.

2. XXX "The Man in the Iron Mask" (1939 version). James Whale, who made "Frankenstein" and "The Invisible Man," directed this treatment of the story, with Warren William as D'Artagnan.

3. XXX "The Man in the Iron Mask" (1977 version). Mike Newell, the director of "Donnie Brasco" and "Four Weddings and a Funeral," handled this made-for-TV movie of the classic, starring Richard Chamberlain, Patrick McGoohan, Louis Jourdan and Ralph Richardson.

Video bargain of the week

XXX 1/2 "The Quiet Man" (Republic Home Video, $20). It wouldn't be St. Patrick's Day without a screening of this 1952 Technicolor tribute to Ireland, starring John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Victor McLaglen, Barry Fitzgerald and Mildred Natwick. It won a fourth Academy Award (still a record) for its director, John Ford (aka Sean O'Feeney).