DarkMode/LightMode
Light Mode

Movies in theaters

 

Hollywood.com Logo 2022

New on DVD: May 11

Hollywood.com Staff
New DVD’s This Week: May 11
 Scary Movie 3
The third installment in this riotous spoof series begins as roving reporter Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris) sets out to find a hard news story in the middle of television sweeps. She uncovers an outrageous onslaught of global threats including alien invaders, killer videotapes, freaky crop circles, prophecies, eerie-eyed children, ambitious white rappers and even Michael Jackson. Faced with conspiracies of massive proportions, and accompanied by a crew of very strange helpers, Cindy must fight to stop evil from taking over the world. Also starring Charlie Sheen, Leslie Nielsen, Eddie Griffin, Anthony Anderson, Queen Latifah and more.
What’s Cool:
  • Commentary by director David Zucker, producer Robert K. Weiss, and writers Craig Mazin and Pat Proft
  • Featurettes: “The Making of Scary Movie 3“; “The Making of Scary Movie 3…For Real”
  • Alternate ending and featurette “Hulk vs. Aliens: Behind the Scenes of the Alternate Ending”
  • Deleted scenes with optional commentary
  • Outtakes and bloopers
From Our Review:
Those who haven’t seen the movies being spoofed should skip Scary Movie 3 altogether. Those who can pick them out will laugh at some of the references, but will also have to sit through some painfully bad scenes and plotlines to get to them.
More. . .
Still Hot
 The Last Samurai
As a mercenary for hire, Civil War hero Capt. Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise) heads to Japan to train the newly formed Imperial Army and usher it into the burgeoning age of modern Western culture–a shift that will put Japan’s ancient customs and values in jeopardy, including the traditions of the fierce and highly respected samurai warriors. Led by the powerful Katsumoto (Oscar-nominated Ken Watanabe), the Samurai eventually capture Algren and take him to their village, where the reluctant prisoner slowly learns to respect the Samurai’s nobility. But the foreseeable battle between the old and the new looms in the near future
What’s Cool:
  • Commentary by director Edward Zwick
  • Deleted scenes: “The Beheading (Behind the Beheading)”
  • Documentaries: “History vs. Hollywood: The Last Samurai”–from the History Channel
  • Featurette: “Tom Cruise: A Warrior’s Journey”; “Making an Epic: A Conversation with Edward Zwick”
From Our Review:
Although the story and Tom Cruise’s performance lack punch, The Last Samurai makes up for its shortcomings in its grand scope, immersing the audience in another time and re-creating the ancient world of the Japanese samurai.
More. . .
 Calendar Girls

In this film, based on a true story, the Women’s Institute in Great Britain encourages the ancient skills of jam-making, flower pressing, knitting and baking. When the group of extraordinary women (lead by Helen Mirren and Julie Walters) start looking for a new way to raise money, they decide to take the annual W.I. calendar, which normally features landscapes or flowers, and create something a little non-conventional instead–behind the baked goods, the apple pressing and the flower arranging, the women are completely nude.
What’s Cool:
  • Featurettes: “Creating the Calendar”–an inside look at what the cast and crew went through to recreate the real calendar; “The Naked Truth”–meet the original Calendar Girls who were the inspiration for the film.
  • Deleted scenes
From Our Review:
Disappointing more for what it tries–and fails–to be than for what it actually is, Calendar Girls is a decent movie whose few failings are made obvious in a field of quality pre-Oscar releases.
More. . .
 Girl With a Pearl Earring
In 17th century Holland, 16-year-old girl Griet (Scarlett Johansson) is employed by famed painter Johannes Vermeer (Colin Firth) as a housemaid to care for his six children, his jealous pregnant wife and his uncommunicative mother-in-law. Tensions arise when Vermeer’s wife suspects intimacy between her husband and the girl–and then come to a head when the wife discovers that Griet borrowed her precious pearl earrings to sit for Vermeer’s famous portrait of a “Girl With a Pearl Earring.”
What’s Cool:
  • Commentary by director Peter Webber
  • “Anatomy of a scene”–behind-the-scenes look at the making of Girl With a Pearl Earring

From Our Review:
With superb performances and exquisite cinematography lifting a contrived story about a 17th-century Dutch artist and his muse, this film is not just for art lovers, it’s for anyone who appreciates gorgeous filmmaking.
More. . .
 Chasing Liberty
Charming and irreverent, 18-year-old Anna Foster (Mandy Moore) just wants to have fun. But as the only child of the president of the United States (Mark Harmon), every detail of Anna’s life is constantly monitored. While on a diplomatic trip to Europe with her parents, Anna decides to take things into her own hands by going incognito and escaping into the unknown. She meets mysterious stranger Ben Calder (Matthew Goode), who reluctantly aids her in her European getaway. As the madcap adventure takes her farther from her family and brings her closer to Ben, she’s dreading the day her holiday will come to an end–and reality hits home.
What’s Cool:
  • Commentary by stars Mandy Moore and Matthew Goode
  • “Passport to Europe”–behind the scenes with Mandy Moore and Matthew Goode
  • Additional scenes
  • Gag reel
  • Music video : “The Seed” by The Roots in concert
From Our Review:
Watching pretty people cavort in beautiful locales can sometimes be enough to make a movie palatable, but in the end Chasing Liberty is just another coming-of-age flick showcasing the eternal teenager Mandy Moore.
More. . .

Compiled by Anne Reiman

- Advertisement -
Hollywood.com Staff
Hollywood.com Staff

Movies in theaters