This animated feature is steeped in the mythos of the Yu-Gi-Oh card game, Manga comics, and television show, which should make it a hit with fans. The plot concerns teenage gaming wizard Yugi Muto (vocalized by Dan Stuart) who, having merged forces with an Egyptian pharaoh since he solved his grandfather's cosmic puzzle, now rules the universe as the king of "Duel Monsters" card players. Meanwhile the evil Egyptian god Annubis has been wakened from centuries of sleep and is slipping hot cards to Yugi's arch rival Kaiba (Eric Stuart) in an underhanded bid to destroy the earth. Robots, knights, sphinxes, a plethora of different dragons, wizards, cute girls, and even clowns get in on the act--appearing, battling, merging, exploding, and dissolving as the labyrinthine rules of the game... Less

Based on Elmore Leonard's famous crime novel, OUT OF SIGHT finds director Steven Soderbergh back in Hollywood after a brief return to the independent world with SCHIZOPOLIS and GRAY'S ANATOMY. A funny, hip, and vibrant action-drama, OUT OF SIGHT tells the story of the unlikely relationship that forms between an FBI agent and a career criminal. After Jack Foley (George Clooney) escapes from jail with the help of his partner, Buddy Bragg (Ving Rhames), he takes Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez), a sexy federal agent, hostage. Immediately sparks fly between the two. Eventually they let her go and leave Miami behind, heading directly for Detroit, where they plan to rob a former cellmate of theirs, a wealthy, white-collar criminal (Albert Brooks). When Karen finally locates Foley, a passionate... Less

The Gospel is by no means a great movie, but it has enough heart, simple decency, and fine music to make it appropriate viewing for families of all kinds. Director- screenwriter Rob Hardy's story revolves around David Taylor (played in his adult years by Boris Kodjoe), a devout youngster who, disillusioned by the death of his mother and mistrust of his pastor father (Clifton Powell), leaves the fold and goes on to become a hip-hop star. But when Bishop Taylor falls ill and David returns home to find his church in dire financial straits and about to be taken over by the Reverend Charles Frank (Idris Elba), once David's best friend but now a self-promoting, money-obsessed hypocrite, well, let's just say that one needn't be an oracle to predict how things will turn out. So the dialogue is... Less

A husband-and-wife team of geneticists develop a daring experimental treatment for a flesh-eating virus of mysterious origin. But when they discover the disease was deliberately deployed by a ruthless tyrant bent on controlling the world, they've got to put down their beakers and take up arms.

Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing star in this creepy tale of a long-frozen "missing link" discovered in the ice in Northern China. As the frozen relic is being transported to England via a trans-Siberian train, passengers begin turning up dead, their eyes drained of all color. This excellent forgotten horror gem has the look and feel of a Hammer production, though it's Spanish. Oh, and Telly Savalas is in it, too!

Boxing movies have had a set of conventions that started in the 1930s and ran all the way up through the Rocky series and beyond. There's the hard-luck underdog contender, the talented boxer who's manipulated by crooked promoters and managers, the outside-the-ring love affair, the score to settle for a fellow boxer, the family tensions over the boxer's career and the climactic match against the big mean champion. Knockout manages to bring all of those ingredients to the table and mix them together. Maria Conchita Alonso plays the lovely and talented Belle, a young boxer with a future. Her dad is an ex-prizefighter himself, pursuing a career in law enforcement; his partner is Belle's love interest. Belle's mother died of a brain tumor some 15 years previous. When her friend,... Less

With Sideways, Paul Giamatti (American Splendor, Storytelling) has become an unlikely but engaging romantic lead. Struggling novelist and wine connoisseur Miles (Giamatti) takes his best friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church, Wings) on a wine-tasting tour of California vineyards for a kind of extended bachelor party. Almost immediately, Jack's insatiable need to sow some wild oats before his marriage leads them in into double-dates with a rambunctious wine pourer (Sandra Oh, Under the Tuscan Sun) and a recently divorce waitress (Virginia Madsen, The Hot Spot)--and Miles discovers a little hope that he hasn't let himself feel in a long time. Sideways is a modest but finely tuned film; with gentle compassion, it explores the failures, struggles, and lowered expectations of mid-life. Giamatti... Less

Samuel L. Jackson makes a gleefully updated John Shaft in John Singleton's homage to (not remake of) the early '70s action classic, picking up where Richard Roundtree's legendary Shaft left off. The Manhattan-set film is highlighted by excellent performances, dynamic action scenes, and witty one-liners (Jackson's Shaft: "It's my duty to please the booty"--although the line's deceptive: there's a surprising lack of sex in the film). Unfortunately, it's offset by a surprisingly uninspired, predictable, one-dimensional story, penned by Singleton, Richard Price, and Shane Salerno. The story, in which Shaft investigates the murder of a young African American, is without suspense, since from the start the audience knows that rich white boy Walter Wade (Christian Bale) did the deed, and that... Less

Martin Ritt directed NUTS, a courtroom thriller which is an example of the director working clearly at the top of his form; he has always been an actor's director and here gets tremendous performances from his entire cast. Taken from a stage play that was changed extensively for the big screen, NUTS is set mostly in a courtroom, where the apparently mentally ill Claudia Draper (Barbra Streisand), a prostitute who has killed one of her johns, is standing trial for manslaughter. However, as the trial progresses and Claudia strains to prove her sanity, startling new evidence is revealed about her parents--who are trying to have her committed, her psychiatrist, and the public defender assigned to her. Streisand produced and starred in this film, and it is evident from her volatile performance... Less

Bolstered by an appealing cast and the comedic genius of Meryl Streep, Prime is an above-average "rom-com" that never stoops to compromise. The plot conceived by writer/director Ben Younger (Boiler Room) is a bit far-fetched, but once he's established that 37-year-old Gentile divorcee Rafi Gardet (Uma Thurman) is unknowingly dating the 23-year-old son (Bryan Greenberg) of her Jewish psychotherapist (played by Streep), the unlikely premise gets an intelligent workout, touching upon all of the issues that would realistically emerge as their dilemma is taken to its logical (or illogical) extremes. As a pair of genuinely devoted lovers in their sexual prime (hence the title), Thurman and Greenberg make this movie a constant joy to watch (and let's face it, Uma's utterly irresistible as an... Less

After creating the last great traditionally animated film of the 20th century, The Iron Giant, filmmaker Brad Bird joined top-drawer studio Pixar to create this exciting, completely entertaining computer- animated film. Bird gives us a family of "supers," a brood of five with special powers desperately trying to fit in with the 9-to-5 suburban lifestyle. Of course, in a more innocent world, Bob and Helen Parr were superheroes, Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl. But blasted lawsuits and public disapproval forced them and other supers to go incognito, making it even tougher for their school-age kids, the shy Violet and the aptly named Dash. When a stranger named Mirage (voiced by Elizabeth Pena) secretly recruits Bob for a potential mission, the old glory days spin in his head, even if his body... Less

Even when his trademark twist-ending formula wears worrisomely thin as it does in The Village, M. Night Shyamalan is a true showman who knows how to serve up a spookfest. He's derailed this time by a howler of a "surprise" lifted almost directly from "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim," an episode of The Twilight Zone starring Cliff Robertson that originally aired in 1961. Even if you're unfamiliar with that Rod Serling scenario, you'll have a good chance of guessing the surprise, which ranks well below The Sixth Sense and Signs on Shyamalan's shock-o-meter. That leaves you to appreciate Shyamalan's proven strengths, including a sharp eye for fear-laden compositions, a general sense of unease, delicate handling of fine actors (alas, most of them wasted here, save for Bryce Dallas Howard in a... Less

The Bachelor got critically slammed when it played in theaters, probably because reviewers couldn't help comparing it with the movie on which it's based, the brilliant Buster Keaton comedy Seven Chances. But on its own terms, The Bachelor is a modest and enjoyable picture about Jimmie (Chris O'Donnell), a happily single young man who suddenly gets an ultimatum from his grandfather's will: marry by his 30th birthday or lose an inheritance of $100 million. This is revealed the day before that very birthday. Unfortunately, Jimmie had already proposed to his girlfriend Anne (Renee Zellweger) and been turned down; she can see in his eyes that he isn't ready to get married and refuses to accept him until he is. So Jimmie needs to find a bride--fast. Though the commitment-shy man is a hoary... Less

Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge has been transplanted to the edge of the American frontier in this vivid drama that didn't receive the theatrical exposure it deserved. Although top young actors adorn the movie's ads, the central character-- Daniel Dillon, a man who runs the gold rush town of Kingdom Come--is played by little-known Peter Mullen. In the dead of winter in 1849, three people arrive in town, changing irrevocably Dillon's life. One is Donald Dalglish (Wes Bentley), the clear-thinking leader of a railroad prospect crew who will determine where the railroad line--and a new line of wealth--will be built. The others are a mother and daughter (Nastassja Kinski, Sarah Polley) who have a past connection to Dillon and the knowledge of how he became rich. As events unfold--in... Less

Carol White (Julianne Moore) is a mousy housewife living the affluent life in the San Fernando Valley when, over the span of a few months, she begins to develop debilitating sensitivities to her environment. A permanent at the hair salon makes her nose bleed and her skin go bad, exhaust from a truck causes her to cough violently, she's allergic to the new couch, goes into seizures at the dry cleaner's. No one understands or credits her condition, least of all her husband or family physician. But the symptoms worsen, and Carol eventually discovers others who suffer from similar environmental illnesses. She checks into a desert spa that caters to those in her predicament, and the staff regales her with touchy-feely, infomercial- style affirmations. All of this could have been broad satire,... Less

Rising to the challenge of Dogma 95's self-imposed restrictions on aesthetic freedom, Thomas Vinterberg's The Celebration is a remarkable example of the way limits can give rise to creative opportunity. (Dogma 95 is a Danish filmmakers collective that also includes Lars von Trier, director of Breaking the Waves. The group crafted a manifesto in which its members vow to eschew special lighting, optical effects, props, and the visible imprint of a director's personality in order to attain higher truths yielded by characters.) The Celebration, shot with a small video camera and transferred to 35mm film, concerns a black-tie birthday gathering for a family patriarch, Helge (Henning Moritzen), which erodes into a battle after long-suppressed secrets are revealed and the chance to... Less

After being murdered for quitting his role as a ruthless yet moral government assassin, Al Simmons (Michael Jai White) is sent to Hell, where he makes a pact with the demon Malebolgia--if Simmons is allowed see his lover, Wanda, again, he will agree to lead the demon's armies to storm the gates of Heaven. Transformed into a superhuman entity with shape-shifting powers and quick regeneration capabilities, Simmons (soon to be dubbed "Spawn" by Malebolgia's crony, The Violator) returns to Earth and attempts to reunite with Wanda, not knowing that five years have passed. He also seeks revenge on his former boss and killer, Jason Wynn (Martin Sheen), who has made a deal with The Violator to develop a lethal virus to take over the world, where Wynn is promised to be king.Spawn wages an inner... Less

B movie maverick Larry Cohen always enjoyed slipping a little social commentary into his genre pictures, and the satirical sci-fi/horror comedy The Stuff is no exception. A mix of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Blob, The Stuff is an insidiously addictive, low-calorie dessert sensation that soon wins the hearts and minds of the nation, but mostly the minds. You see, to borrow a title from another Cohen classic, it's alive. Michael Moriarty is an industrial spy with questionable ethics and a certain moral flexibility behind his disarming drawl. "No one is as dumb as I appear to be," he informs his newest client, a snack food CEO who wants the secret of The Stuff. Needless to say he becomes the film's hero, a smart-talking everyman battling a compromised FDA and a corporate... Less

Charming and frequently hilarious, IFC Films' Camp is like Fame for the musical-theater set. It's set at Camp Ovation, a summer retreat for budding actors and singers who chant Stephen Sondheim's "Losing My Mind" on their bus rather than "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall." Into this environment comes a--gasp!--straight male, Vlad (Daniel Letterle), who turns upside down the lives of wallflower Ellen (Joanna Chilcoat), cross-dressing Michael (Robin DeJesus), and instructor Bert Hanley (Don Dixon), a frustrated one-hit-wonder composer. Camp was written and directed by Todd Graff, himself a Broadway veteran, based on his experiences at New York's musical camp Stagedoor Manor (which was attended by Natalie Portman and Robert Downey Jr., among others). The characters are a bit thin and the... Less

Ingmar Bergman's 1966 film, photographed by Sven Nykvist, begins when famous actress Elisabeth Vogler (Liv Ullmann) freezes on stage in the middle of a performance. Struck dumb by an unknown cause, she winds up in the care of young inexperienced nurse Alma (Bibi Andersson), and together they retreat to the seaside for the summer, where they enter into an uncommon intimacy and clash of wills. Bergman's study of the fragility of the human being and the treachery of life is incredibly moving in its perception and unrivaled imagery. And as always with Bergman and his reappearing ensemble of actors, the performances are flawless. Especially notable is the scene in which Alma recounts for the silent Elisabeth a morally and emotionally ambivalent erotic encounter she had experienced on a beach... Less

The fascination of watching Damage is similar to the fascination of watching a car crash in progress--you know something unpleasant is going to happen, but your attention is riveted to the scene of destruction. In the case of this acclaimed drama, adapted by playwright David Hare from the novel by Josephine Hart, the destruction results from a collision of sexual attraction between a British governmental official (Jeremy Irons) and his son's fiancée (Juliette Binoche). Blind to the damage they'll cause to others and themselves, they begin an obsessive affair based purely on impulsive attraction and the hidden emotions that feed into their immediate physical desires. As you could expect, this leads to emotional fallout for everyone concerned, lending multiple interpretations to the film's... Less

In Parents, director Bob Balaban deconstructs our Father Knows Best perception of '50s suburbia, skewing it via moody cinematography and Angelo Badalamenti's sinister score. Ten-year-old Michael Lamele (Bryan Madorsky) thinks his parents (Randy Quaid and Mary Beth Hurt) are cannibals. His constant fear of his folks and their supposedly evil doings begin to warp his view of the world, and he starts seeing a social worker to confront his problems. Are they merely childhood fears intensified by an overactive imagination, or do Michael's parents really crave human flesh? Much in the way that David Lynch approached the sinister underside of small-town America in Wild at Heart, so too does Balaban challenge our notion of the 'burbs as an escape from the harsh reality of the city. If anything,... Less

Bolstered by an appealing cast and the comedic genius of Meryl Streep, Prime is an above-average "rom-com" that never stoops to compromise. The plot conceived by writer/director Ben Younger (Boiler Room) is a bit far-fetched, but once he's established that 37-year-old Gentile divorcee Rafi Gardet (Uma Thurman) is unknowingly dating the 23-year-old son (Bryan Greenberg) of her Jewish psychotherapist (played by Streep), the unlikely premise gets an intelligent workout, touching upon all of the issues that would realistically emerge as their dilemma is taken to its logical (or illogical) extremes. As a pair of genuinely devoted lovers in their sexual prime (hence the title), Thurman and Greenberg make this movie a constant joy to watch (and let's face it, Uma's utterly irresistible as an... Less

In this fast-paced, sci-fi/horror shoot-'em-up based on the Dark Horse comic book, Jamie Lee Curtis plays the navigator of an ocean-going tug. When a typhoon cripples their boat, the crew sails into the eye of the storm, where they discover a high-tech Russian communications and research vessel adrift. Only one Russian crewmember is still alive, raving about "intelligent lightning." They soon discover that an alien life form has taken over the ship's computers and is churning out biomechanical warriors. With their own boat destroyed, the crew must battle the creature as the ship reenters the storm. If the basic story and characters all sound familiar, it may not surprise you that producer Gale Anne Hurd's other films include The Terminator and Aliens. This movie and its derivative... Less

In the road-movie-relucta nt-pals genre, Fled goes down a road well-taken and still manages to get lost. Defiant ones Piper (Laurence Fishburne) and Dodge (Stephen Baldwin) escape from their chain gang when a prison break/shootout begins. Evading rednecks and faceless policemen they make it to Atlanta where "smart-ass" Dodge (who delivers one-liners that do a disservice to smart-asses everywhere) has to recover a computer disk. They are aided and abetted by Cora (Salma Hayek--this time using a funny hat, instead of her breasts, for character development), who takes the convicts in as if she were picking up college buddies from the airport. Maybe she realizes what great guys these prison-garbed buffoons are. They donate money to charity. They save dying rednecks. They rescue little boys... Less

WINNER OF... -The International Film and Video Competition- Gold Award -WorldFest Houston- Bronze Award -The C.I.N.D.Y. Awards- Gold Award -United Press International- 1995 Years Best in Jazz: Video Oscar Peterson narrates this feature-length film, tracing the evolution of his ever-changing sound and style: from his early days as Montreal's boogie-woogie sensation, through his meteoric rise to international celebrity. Distilled from 80 hours of footage, the 106 minute, 2-videocassate "Oscar Peterson: Music in the Key of Oscar" features close to an hour of rare vintage and exciting contemporary performances, including Nat "King" Cole with Jazz at the Philharmonic and the historic reunion of the Oscar Peterson Trio- Oscar on piano, Ray Brown on bass and Herb Ellis on guitar. Interviews... Less

This hidden treasure stars Timothy Dalton and Anthony Edwards as Bancroft and Decker, two patients in a terminal cancer ward in a British hospital. The feisty, deceptively antagonistic Bancroft coaxes Decker out of his self-pitying, suicidal mindset and convinces him to enjoy his remaining days rather than waste away in the cheerless hospital. Thus the duo steal an ambulance, flee England, and head for the brothels of Amsterdam. But their plans change when they encounter two British women (Janet McTeer and Camille Coduri) along the way, and the resulting amorous entanglements provide both romantic joy and pain for the men, who try to conceal their illness while one of the women hides a secret of her own. Hawks is a rare gem that balances humor and pathos and avoids maudlin... Less

The celebrated signing of the Oslo Peace Agreement in 1993, symbolized by the handshake between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, signaled to people throughout the world a long-awaited resolution to the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. Recent events, however, have cast a shadow over the original optimism for regional peace and revealed the fundamental shortcomings of the agreement. Tom Wright and Therese Saliba lived in the West Bank from 1995 to 1996 and chronicled these events as they unfolded. Checkpoint, their new video- documentary, portrays a side of the story little known to American audiences: the devastating effects of the agreement on Palestinian lives. With an engaging style and offbeat humor, the documentary exposes shallow mass-media interpretations of the conflict and reveals... Less

WINNER OF... -The Dove Foundation Family Approved Seal -The Parents Choice "Gold Award" Ballet in 3 acts Music by Sergei Prokofiev Staged and choreographed by Tom Schilling Berlin Comic Opera Orchestra conducted by Siegfried Kratzer First performed: Sadler's Wells Ballet, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, with Moira Shearer 12/23/48 U.S. Premiere: Sadler's Wells Ballet, Metropolitan Opera, New York, with Margot Fonteyn 10/18/49 This well-known fairy tale of "Cinderella," based on the story of the 17th Century poet, Charles Perrault, has been a ballet for over 150 years. But it's enormous success came only after Frederick Ashton was inspired by the wistful and imaginatice Prokofiev score (written in 1945), and he created Britain's first full-length ballet. Together with... Less

Night Train to Terror is a horror anthology loosely tied together by interludes featuring God (Himself) and Satan (Lu Cifer) on a train haggling over the souls of characters in the stories. Along for the ride, for some reason, is what we're told is a "rock band," singing one rockin' little tune called, "Dance With Me," accompanied by some pretty hot breakdancing. The souls of the musicians are to be divied up also, but it's dramatically frustrating when this doesn't happen. The trio of stories presented make about as much sense as this, banking on absurd situations and splatter technique for their appeal, but coming off as unhumorously grisly and sadistic anyway. "The Case of Harry Billings" tells of a poor sod drugged up and hypnotized into luring unsuspecting victims to a hospital... Less