Video Rentals

Bowfinger $6.86 million 1 week in release $6.86 million to date Cast / Director / Studio Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy / Frank Oz (Blues Brothers) / Universal Plot Con-man movie producer terrorizes cult-member movie star by filming him in a movie without telling him. Message Art, celebrity, and creativity exist as tools to be used in making money. CautionRated PG-13 for bad language and sexual situations. Lake Placid $5.11 million 2 weeks in release $11.17 million to date Cast / Director / Studio Bridget Fonda, Bill Pullman / Steve Miner (Halloween H20) / 20th Century Fox Plot Jaws rip-off about four hapless hunters trying to capture a 30-foot man-eating crocodile. Message When you go out to capture something, sometimes you become the prey. Caution Rated R for gore, violence, and bad language. The Thomas Crown Affair $4.88 million 3 weeks in release $20.24 million to date Cast / Director / Studio Pierce Brosnan, Rene Russo / John McTiernan (Die Hard) / MGM Plot Remake of 1968 Steve McQueen movie about a debonair billionaire who steals art treasures for kicks and beds the insurance investigator. Message Criminals can be cool if they have enough chutzpah. Caution Rated R for bad language, nudity, and sexual situations. The 13th Warrior $4.85 million 1 week in release $4.85 million to date Cast / Director / Studio Antonio Banderas, Omar Sharif / John McTiernan (Die Hard) / Touchstone Pictures Plot Swashbuckler about an Islamic poet who joins a Norse tribe to defend its village against oncoming marauders. Message Epic multiculturalism: Both Arab and Norse cultures are important and deserve respect. Caution Rated R for bloody battles and lots of carnage. The General's Daughter $3.78 million 6 weeks in release $30.71 million to date Cast / Director / Studio John Travolta, James Woods / Simon West (ConAir) / Paramount Pictures Plot An army cop investigates the brutal rape and murder of an officer's daughter. Message Dark secrets in high places will eventually be revealed. Message Rated R for bad language, nudity, violence, and rape. In the Spotlight The release of a new movie based on a Jane Austen novel has become an almost yearly delight. Since 1995, seven movies have been made from her works. The latest, Mansfield Park (Miramax; rated PG-13 for brief violent images and sexual content), is beautiful to look at, like its predecessors Emma and Sense and Sensibility. But unlike those films, which were faithful to the books upon which they were based, this Austen strays far afield. It turns Fanny Price, the poor girl who is taken into her rich relative's home, into an early 19th-century pre-feminist, devoted to her art. It transforms her wealthy uncle, Lord Bertram (played by playwright Harold Pinter), into a brutal slave master, a kind of two-faced monster, whose double life produces misery both in the West Indies and at home. Fanny is given to making speeches that are so 1990s that you may want to giggle or cry. Despite these politically correct tweakings, the film is still enjoyable, especially for those unfamiliar with the book. Those who like their Austen unadulterated might want to skip this screen version.