The Benchwarmers *|This latest film from Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison production banner severely tests the maxim that “There’s no such thing as a bad movie about baseball.” It’s crude and lowbrow but harmless. David Spade and Jon Heder (“Napoleon Dynamite”)are two virginal nerds whose lifetime of getting picked on is avenged when they join their pal, Gus (Rob Schneider), for a three- on-nine baseball scrimmage against some Little League bullies, and crush them. Mel (Jon Lovitz) spies them and sponsors a “build a new ballpark” tourney featuring the three “benchwarmers” against the best adolescent baseball teams in the region, and Nerd Nation tunes in (on the Web) to see their humiliation avenged. If flatulence, crotch-kicks, tequila-benders and nerd revenge are your thing, this DVD is for you.|PG-13|80 minutes|Released today|Roger Moore, The Orlando Sentinel
Ask the Dust ***|Writer-director Robert Towne wanted to make “Ask the Dust” for more than 30 years. While writing “Chinatown,” he read John Fante’s novel about a young Italian-American writer who finds his muses in the dust- choked, sun-bleached environs of 1930s Los Angeles. With Colin Farrell’s muscularly delicate performance, Towne has created a moody, emotionally elegant drama. Salma Hayek plays Camilla, Arturo Bandini’s love and nemesis. “Rent’s” Idina Menzel repels then mesmerizes as the other handmaiden to Arturo’s growth, Vera Rifkin. “Ask the Dust” mourns a city long ago lost even as it celebrates an old-school belief in “the writer.”|R|117 minutes|Released today|Lisa Kennedy
Tsotsi ***|This year’s Academy Award winner for foreign language film tells the story of a young South African street criminal suddenly confronted with moral choices, and his own humanity. Tsotsi is a brutal thug who kills a woman in a carjacking, only to discover a baby in the back seat. In his own violent, single-minded way, he tries to raise the baby while figuring out what to do next.|R|96 minutes|Released July 18|Michael Booth
The Shaggy Dog ** 1/2|Tim Allen was born to play a dog. He has been practicing since before he became a TV star – the growling, the panting, the crotch fixation. Disney’s remake of “The Shaggy Dog” uses Allen to great effect in a comedy about a workaholic dad who has to be bitten by a magical dog and become canine himself to find out the truth about his family and the real villains in a trial he is trying. Robbins wastes a lot of time setting up this magical dog’s origins, complete with a jackbooted black helicopter dog-nap team, and the film’s frequent trips into the animal testing/torture lab are unpleasant and could creep out younger children.|PG|95 minutes|Released Aug. 1|Roger Moore, The Orlando Sentinel
TV ON DVD
“Carnivale: The Complete
Second Season ” |
Apparently the HBO series
“Carnivale” was lost
on many people, which is
why it was canceled. I was
indifferent toward the first
season, which I stopped
watching, but found myself
hooked by the second
season. I won’t try to explain
the eerie story line
set around a Depressionera
carney troupe traveling
across the Midwest
and West. Starring Nick
Stahl, Clancy Brown, Adrienne
Barbeau, Patrick
Bauchau, Clea DuVall and
Amy Madigan, the series
weirdly pitted good vs.
evil with a lot of shades of
gray. I just wish it stuck
around long enough for
me to find out who
won. | $99.98 each | Released
July 18 | Rob Lowman,
L.A. Daily News
Also available today
And Now the Screaming Starts!
Aristide and the Endless Revolution
Asphalt Wars
Asylum
The Beast Must Die Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story
A Canterbury Tale
Chappelle’s Show: The Lost Episodes
Deepwater
Electric Shadows
Final Destination 3
Forbidden Fruits
Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance
Hudson Hawk
Hussy
The Iris Effect
Jane Eyre
Joe Dirt
Ladybugs
Leonard Bernstein’s New York
Miami Vice: Seasons 1 & 2
The Prisoner Megaset: 40th Anniversary Collector’s Edition
The Shirley Temple Collection
Stuart Sutcliffe: The Lost Beatle
Testimony
