With music-video director Francis Lawrence at the helm, it's no wonder the supernatural special-effects-fest Constantine looks pretty. But in the title role as a bitter, dying exorcist/detective, Keanu Reeves is much smaller and stiffer than the heavenly battle raging around him—it's like Stigmata turned up to 11, with The Matrix's Neo glowering in the middle of it all. Warner Bros. is releasing the film in three flavors: widescreen, fullscreen, and the double-disc "deluxe edition" set, which includes a collector's-edition issue of Hellblazer, just to bring home how Constantine genericked up its comic-book source material…
Okay, a title like Ice Princess (Disney) pretty clearly indicates a film that's going to appeal primarily to 12-year-old girls with skating fixations. Nothing wrong with that, but only the most slow-witted of the frostbitten target audience will make it through this predictable Michelle Trachtenberg vehicle without grimacing. The DVD promises a "cool alternate opening." Why not a cool alternate middle and end, too?…
In Shinya Tsukamoto's grotesque yet mesmerizing 1988 stomach-churner Tetsuo: The Iron Man (Tartan Asia Extreme), a Japanese salaryman starts sprouting metal parts from his tortured body after an accident. The story could be read a number of ways, including as yet another take on the common Japanese cinematic theme of encroaching societal mechanization and personal dehumanization. Or it could just be an excuse for a lot of viscerally wrenching close-ups of human flesh ripping apart as wet machinery churns within. David Cronenberg fans, step right up… Pulp Fiction meets the Czech New Wave in Jan Hrebejk's multi-character comedy-drama Up And Down (Columbia Tristar), which means to recapture the go-for-broke energy of early Milos Forman for a new political era. It gets off to a rousing start, but once the action slows down and the interlocking narratives slacken, it more closely resembles Lawrence Kasdan…
Tommy Lee Jones… three words that improve almost any movie. But not the Texas-Ranger-must-protect-a-gaggle-of-cheerleaders-from-the-mob comedy Man Of The House (Columbia Tristar). Not even a little.