Videos

New on video

XX "Star Kid." Writer-director Manny Coto (the sadist who brought us "Dr. Giggles") did two smart things when he made the children's action film "The Warrior of Waverly Street." The first had to do with casting (he hired Joseph Mazzello to play the pre-teen hero), and the second was to allow that awful title to be changed to the more youth-friendly "Star Kid." But it's still a simplistic film. That's not a crime in children's movies, but this sci-fi/rock-em, sock-em, in which Mazzello finds an alien battle suit, has nothing else to offer.

XX "Playing God." It might seem unfair to refer to "Playing God" as "The Rx-Files," even though the movie features David Duchovny as a doctor gone bad. But since the star of television's "The X-Files" is the only reason to see this film, maybe that's a fair description after all. Timothy Hutton plays a counterfeit pirate, Angelina Jolie is his moll and Duchovny is the only welcome sight amidst all the murder and mayhem. He stitches up bad guys. Too bad he couldn't sew up the script. - Keith Simanton

XXX "Bella Mafia." Any film starring Vanessa Redgrave, Nastassja Kinski and Illeana Douglas can't help but provide entertaining moments. While it takes a while for this CBS miniseries (cut down to 117 minutes for this tape) to work up a head of steam (and make clear what it's about), once it does, it becomes an enjoyable potboiler - especially if your taste runs to Mafia murder and intrigue. Adapted from her own novel by Lynda La Plante (best known for "Prime Suspect"), this really should have been titled "Mafia Widows" or "Mafia Wives" because its focus is on the banding together of several Mafia widows to avenge the murders of their husbands and family members. - John Voorhees

XXX "Washington Square." Agnieszka Holland directed this staid but (eventually) wondrous new adaptation of the Henry James novel about a dim heiress whose father threatens her inheritance when a suspicious, handsome suitor comes courting. The film soars after the daughter's fall, when Jennifer Jason Leigh finds what seems a hundred shades of regret and triumph in her heroine's disappointment in life. - Lyall Bush

XX 1/2 "Tomorrow Never Dies." "Let the mayhem begin," says Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce), the Hamburg-based media mogul who wants to start World War III in the 18th official James Bond movie. Carver models himself on William Randolph Hearst, and is clearly meant to suggest Rupert Murdoch in a sabre-rattling mode. His plan is to use satellite technology to convince Chinese MIG pilots that a British warship has entered China's territorial waters, and to persuade the British that they're being provoked by the Chinese as well. His opponents include not only Agent 007 (Pierce Brosnan doing James Bond for the second time) but his female ally, Wai Lin, played by Hong Kong martial-arts star Michelle Yeoh. Carver sounds like a promising villain, but this is much the same formula as before.

XXX "TeleVoid." A nifty new computer-animation tape from Seattle's Miramar company, this collection of clips and short films was designed by director Mike Boydstun (who did Miramar's "The Mind's Eye") to follow a night in the life of "Skully," a bony channel-surfer with a short attention span. It begins on a fairly innocuous level, then the images grow increasingly macabre; it's as if the malevolent Sid from "Toy Story" had taken control (the tape comes with a parental guidance warning). The most striking of the shorts is a piece by Dave Berry that suggests a modern version of Disney's innovative 1929 Silly Symphony, "The Skeleton Dance." - John Hartl

Also new in stores

Today - Gray Warriner's "Oasis," "The Newlywed Game: Hot, Wild and Outrageous," "Pups at Play," "The Little Horse That Could: The Connemara Stallion Erin Go Bragh," "Packing With Jill."

Tuesday - Tamiyo Kusakari in "Shall We Dance," Jack Nicholson in "As Good as It Gets," Casper Van Dien in "Starship Troopers," Christopher Lloyd in "Angels in the Endzone," "Greatest World Series Moments," "This Week in Baseball: 20 Years of Unforgettable Finishes," "The Fall of Saigon: Memories and Nightmares," "Carrier: Fortress at Sea," "Sea Wings Collection," "The Great Egyptians I and II," "Paelo World," "Beyond T-Rex," "Timothy Leary's Dead," Thierry Lhermitte in "Little Indian Big City," "Quest for Camelot Singalong," "Looney Tunes Singalong," "The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars," Disney's "Toothless," "Barney's Big Surprise," "The Slapstick Encyclopedia," Jane March in "Provocateur," Sean Young in "The Invader," Patrick Stewart in "Moby Dick," Alyssa Milano in "Hugo Pool," "The Exotic Time Machine," "Giga Shadow," Edward James Olmos in "Hollywood Confidential," Julie Delpy in "An American Werewolf in Paris," "The Haunted Mask," "Stay Out of the Basement," "A Night in Terror Tower," "The Werewolf of Fever Swamp."

New on DVD

XXX 1/2 "12 Monkeys" (Universal Home Video, $35). Terry Gilliam's mind-stretching 1995 science-fiction thriller is letterboxed on this disc, which is part of Universal's "Signature Collection" series and includes a commentary by Gilliam, the original theatrical trailer and a making-of documentary about the creation of the film.

New on laserdisc

"The Garbo Silents" (MGM Home Entertainment, $90). This boxed set of three romantic Greta Garbo silent films includes "Torrent" (1926), about a rejected opera singer; "Love" (1927), an upbeat adaptation of "Anna Karenina" co-starring John Gilbert; and "Wild Orchids" (1929), which has a soundtrack of synchronized sound effects and music. "Torrent" is tinted and includes an orchestral score, as does "Love." Also included is a nine-minute clip from "The Divine Woman" (1928); the rest of the film is apparently lost.

Screen gems

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

1. XXX 1/2 "Ordinary People." Robert Redford, whose latest film is "The Horse Whisperer," made his directing debut with this 1980 classic about a family disturbed by the death of a favorite son. It won him the Oscar for best director.

2. XXX 1/2 "A River Runs Through It." Redford's beautiful 1992 adaptation of the Norman Maclean's novel is also about a family that suffers through the early death of a son.

3. XXXX "Quiz Show." Redford's excellent 1994 version of the quiz-show scandals of the late 1950s stars Ralph Fiennes as a compromised scholar and Paul Scofield as his humiliated father.

Video bargain of the week

XXXX "Do the Right Thing" (Universal Home Video, $10). Spike Lee's best movie, originally released nearly a decade ago, is down to its lowest cassette price to date.