Videos

New on video

XXX "Enemy of the State" (R). Tony Scott, director of "Top Gun" and "Crimson Tide," made this thriller about a labor attorney (Will Smith) who is framed for murder by a government official (Jon Voight). Scott's button-pushing, pleasure-pellet machine of a movie will inevitably be compared to a very different film: Francis Ford Coppola's brilliant, methodic 1974 drama, "The Conversation." Both feature Gene Hackman as a surveillance expert and both deal with intrigue, mayhem and surveillance technology. - Keith Simanton

XXX "Little Voice" (R). When we first meet the protagonist of this adaptation of Jim Cartwright's stage play, "The Rise and Fall of Little Voice," she appears to be a mute slip of a girl in her mid-20s. But we soon learn that this young woman is a closet diva. Jane Horrocks, for whom the part was written, delivers feats of exceptional mimicry in the role. Michael Caine does a deliciously sleazy turn as a low-rent show-biz agent.

XXX "Dancing at Lughnasa" (PG). Based on Brian Friel's Tony Award-winning play, this 1998 film is powerfully acted, but measured and slightly sweetened - a sketchy, yet at times piercingly melancholic tale of sacrifice, endurance and fleeting joy. Isolated in their lonely rural cottage, the Mundy women, led by the eldest sister, Kate (played by Meryl Streep with stiff backbone and faultless brogue), share a life of hard labor and sacrifice. Irish director Pat O'Connor brings us much closer to the women and their heartache, but doesn't fill in some important gaps. - Misha Berson

XXX "My Name Is Joe" (R). Peter Mullan gives a great performance in this blistering Ken Loach movie about an unemployed painter who pursues a health worker (Louise Goodall) who finds it difficult to accept the compromises he makes. The script was inspired by a statistic: There's a 10-year difference in life expectancy between the rich and the poor who are represented in two different ZIP codes in Glasgow. From the beginning, the affair between these two people seems doomed by the fact that their backgrounds are so different, yet that doesn't make their connection seem any less vital.

XX 1/2 "The Faculty" (R). Imagine: the teachers at a rundown, drug-addled high school have turned into aliens, and they're using their power as authority figures to transform their students as well. It's a nifty idea that Kevin Williamson, the busy writer behind "Scream" and "Dawson's Creek," turns into a 102-minute joke-a-thon, complete with his patented putdowns and homages to horror classics. It's a fun ride if you don't ask for too much.

XX 1/2 "Boys in Love 2" (no rating). A mixed bag of gay short films, including one of last year's more imaginative Bumbershoot entries: Joel Moffett's "My Body," a dream-like half-hour comedy about a repressed homosexual who splits into two people. Also included in this tape from First Run Features are Todd Downing's "Dirty Baby Does Fire Island," Barry Purves' "Achilles" (an animated short narrated by Derek Jacobi) and Stewart Main's vivid New Zealand fantasy, "Twilight of the Gods," in which a Maori warrior has an affair with an English soldier.

XXX "A Soldier's Sweetheart" (R). An ambitious, haunting made-for-cable film starring Kiefer Sutherland and Skeet Ulrich as medics in Vietnam in 1967. Georgina Cates dominates the picture as Ulrich's girlfriend, who goes native in the least expected ways when she visits their camp. An apparently preposterous story transforms itself into a heart-of-darkness fable that's open to more than one interpretation. - John Hartl

Also new in stores

Tomorrow - Robert Forster in "Outside Ozona."

Tuesday - "The Will Smith Story," "Tweet and Lovely," "Home Tweet Home," "Backlash," Rose McGowan in "Jawbreaker," Drew Barrymore in "Wishful Thinking," Billy Bob Thornton in "A Simple Plan," Sean Penn in "Hurlyburly," Robin Williams in "Patch Adams," Tim Daly in "Storm of the Century," Janeane Garafolo in "Sweethearts," Charles Sheen in "Under Pressure," Sir David Attenborough's "The Life of Birds," "Blue's Big Treasure Hunt," Matt Battaglia in "Universal Soldier II: Brothers in Arms."

New on DVD

XXXX "Aliens" (R) (Fox Home Entertainment, $30). This marks the DVD debut of James Cameron's roller-coaster-like 1986 sequel. The wide-screen disc includes almost 20 minutes of extra footage, including a character-refining sequence for Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), who turns out to have been a frustrated mother. Also available on DVD for the same price are Ridley Scott's original "Alien" (with audio commentary by Scott), "Alien 3" (featuring behind-the-scenes footage) and "Alien Resurrection" (featuring the original trailer).

New on laserdisc

XXX 1/2 "Titanic" (PG-13) (Paramount Home Video, $50). James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster still hasn't been released on DVD, but already it's available in a second laser edition. The chief difference here is the DTS soundtrack, which features less muddy stereo effects.

Screen gems

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

1. XXX "Tarzan the Ape Man" (1932 version) (no rating). Johnny Weissmuller first became identified with Edgar Rice Burroughs' jungle hero in this MGM version of the story. Disney's cartoon, "Tarzan," opens in theaters tomorrow.

2. XXX 1/2 "Tarzan and His Mate" (no rating). The best of the Weissmuller movies, this 1934 film co-stars Maureen O'Sullivan as Jane and Neil Hamilton as her ex-boyfriend.

3. XXX "Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes." Revered screenwriter Robert Towne wrote this ambitious 1984 attempt to follow the Burroughs book more closely than previous films.

Video bargain of the week

XXX 1/2 "Love and Death on Long Island" (PG-13) (Universal Home Video, $20). John Hurt gives one of his most inspired performances in this contemporary comic British variation on "Death in Venice." He plays a widowed, sheltered writer who becomes entranced with an American teen idol (Jason Priestley).