Video release 07/06
Billie
The Butterfly Effect: (3 stars) Evan Treborn (Ashton Kutcher) has lost track of
time. From an early age, crucial moments of his life have disappeared into a
black hole of forgetting, his boyhood marred by a series of terrifying events
he can't remember. What remains is the ghost of memory and the broken lives of
his childhood friends, Kayleigh (Amy Smart), Lenny (Elden Henson) and Tommy
(William Lee Scott). Throughout his childhood, Evan was under the care of a
psychologist who encouraged him to keep a journal, detailing the events of his
day-to-day life. Now in college, Evan reads from one of those journals and
finds himself thrust inexplicably back in time. Evan comes to realize the
notebooks he keeps under his bed are a vehicle, a way to return to the past to
reclaim his memories. But these recollections only leave Evan feeling
responsible for the damaged lives of his friends, especially Kayleigh, the
childhood sweetheart he still loves. Determined to do something now that he was
incapable of doing then, Evan purposely travels back in time, his present-day
mind occupying his childhood body, in an attempt to re-write history and spare
his friends and loved ones these traumatic experiences. By altering the events
of the past, Evan hopes to transform the present. But every time Evan changes
something in the past, he returns to the present to find his actions have
unexpected and disastrous consequences. Try as he might, he can't seem to
create a reality that allows he and Kayleigh to live "happily ever after."
Director: Eric Bress, J. Mackye Gruber. Stars: Ashton Kutcher, Melora Walters,
Amy Smart, Elden Henson, William Lee Scott, John Patrick Amedori, Irene
Gorovaia, Kevin Schmidt, Jesse James. 2004, CC, MPAA rating: R, 113 min., Sci
Fi thriller, Box office gross: $57.384 million, New Line, No VHS SRP, Priced
for rental. DVD: yes.
My Voyage to Italy: (4 stars) Martin Scorsese directs and narrates this
remarkable in-depth look at the careers of great Italian filmmakers and their
profound influence on him. In this fascinating, entertaining and personal film,
Scorsese takes the viewer on a thrilling journey through the classics of
Italian cinema, from the gritty neo-realism of post-WWII Italy through its
transition into opulent period drama and surrealist fantasy. Illuminated by
insightful movie clips and his own impassioned commentary, Scorsese's deeply
personal observations offer not only an absorbing lesson in the history of
Italian film, but in how Mr. Scorsese's cinematic heroes connect with
contemporary filmmaking. The famed directors and their works featured include:
Giovanni Pastrone: "Cabiria"; Alessandro Blasetti: "1860," "La Corona di Ferro
(The Iron Crown)," "Fabiola"; Roberto Rossellini: "Roma Citte Aperta (Open
City)," "Paise (Paisan)," "Germania Anno Zero (Germany, Year Zero)," "Il
Miracolo (The Miracle)," "Stromboli," "Terra di Dio Francesco Giullare di Dio
(The Flowers of St. Francis)," "Viaggio in Italia (Voyage To Italy)"; Luchino
Visconti: "Ossessione," "Giorni di Gloria," "La Terra Trema," "Senso"; Vittorio
De Sica: "Ladri di Biciclette (The Bicycle Thief)," "Sciuscie (Shoeshine),"
"Umberto D.," "L'Oro di Napoli (The Gold of Naples)"; Federico Fellini: "I
Vitelloni," "La Dolce Vita," "Otto e Mezzo (8 1/2)"; Michelangelo Antonioni:
"L'Avventura," "L'elisse (Eclipse)." Two-disc DVD for $29.99. Director: Martin
Scorsese. 1999, CC, MPAA rating: PG-13, 246 min., Documentary, Miramax, No VHS
SRP. DVD: Only.
Monsieur Ibrahim:(3 stars) Powerful, critically-acclaimed story of two people
-- an elderly Muslim shopkeeper and a young Jewish boy -- from seemingly wholly
opposite cultures who form a special bond of friendship and together confront
life's painful and joyful rites of passage. During the early 1960s, Paris, like
much of Europe, was an explosion of life. As the old gave way to the new,
everything was in flux and the city was filled with an energy that promised
cultural shifts and social change. Against this background, in a working class
neighborhood, two unlikely characters -- a young Jew and an elderly Muslim --
begin a friendship. When we meet Momo, he is in effect an orphan even though he
lives with his father, a man slowly retreating into a crippling depression. His
only friends are the street whores who treat him with genuine affection. Momo
buys his groceries at the neighborhood shop, a crowded dark space owned and run
by Ibrahim, a silent exotic looking man who sees and knows more then he lets
on. After his father abandons Momo, Ibrahim becomes the one grownup in Momo's
life. Together they begin a journey that will change their lives forever. The
film was a 2004 Golden Globe Nominee for Best Foreign Film, won a 2004 National
Board of Review award for best foreign film and nabbed a Best Actor Award at
the 2004 Venice Film Festival for Sharif. 15-year old Pierre Boulanger made his
film debut here and won a Best Actor award at the 2003 Chicago International
Film Festival. In French and Turkish with English subtitles. Director: Francois
Dupeyron. Stars: Omar Sharif, Pierre Boulanger. 2003, CC, MPAA rating: R, 95
min., Drama, Box office gross: $2.040 million, Columbia TriStar, No VHS SRP,
Priced for rental. DVD: yes
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