title: Frank Miller's Sin City - Recut, Extended, Unrated studio: Dimension Home Entertainment MPAA rating: Unrated starring: Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Mickey Rourke, Jaime King, Clive Owen, Brittany Murphy, Rosario Dawson, Devon Aoki, Alexis Bledel, Benicio Del Toro, Elijah Wood, Nick Stahl, Michael Madsen, Carla Gugino, Michael Clarke Duncan theatrical release year: 2005 DVD release year: 2005 film rating: Five Stars sound/picture: Five Stars reviewed by: Mel Odom When “Sin City” was released in theaters, the movie set off a wave of controversy. Detractors hated the stylized violence and gratuitous way women were used throughout the storylines. Nudity and bloodshed ran amok. Some claimed there were no true heroes in the bunch. Others who had found Frank Miller’s “Sin City” comic books before the movie felt certain that Robert Rodriguez couldn’t pull off Miller’s film noir stories in a way that would come close to the original. Fans of Rodriguez’s work felt certain the director had picked the wrong movie to do next.

title: Stephen King's Riding The Bullet function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close();  studio: Lions Gate Home Entertainment MPAA rating: R starring: Jonathan Jackson, David Arquette, Barbara Hershey, Cliff Robertson, Erika Christensen film release year: 2004 DVD release year: 2005 film rating: Four Stars sound/picture rating: Three-and-a-Half Stars reviewed by: Abbie Bernstein Although Stephen King is best known as a horror fiction writer, when his work is translated to the screen, it is the adaptations of his more character-driven work – “Stand By Me,” “The Shawshank Redemption,” “The Green Mile” – that tend to get the most respect. “Stephen King’s Riding the Bullet” splits the difference – it is a ghost story that centers squarely on the emotional life of Alan Parker (Jonathan Jackson).

title: 3 Steps to Heaven function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); studio: Miramax Home Entertainment MPAA rating: R starring: Katrin Cartlidge, Frances Barber, James Fleet, Con O’Neill, David Cardy, Paul-Mark Elliot, Stuart Laing film release year: 1995 DVD release year: 2005 film rating: One-Half Star sound/picture: One-and-a-Half Stars reviewed by: Paul Lingas The title “3 Steps to Heaven” belies the fact that the film is such a mess; heaven is not going to be the final end point. At once failing as noir, psychosexual thriller and amateur detective story, the film never gets its feet underneath it and the result is 90 minutes of viewing frustration over a hackneyed plot that contains some of the most overly used and unoriginal ideas in independent film. The film is fairly devoid of anything approaching subtlety. The main actress is shown lounging around in her underwear all the time and often the characters do things for no apparent reason. Most of the characters inhabit a world of cliché, made all the more ...

title: The Village function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); <br> studio: Touchstone Home Entertainment MPAA rating: PG-13 starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody, Bryce Dallas Howard, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Brendan Gleeson film release year: 2004 DVD release year: 2005 film rating: Two-and-a-Half Stars sound/picture: Three Stars reviewed by: Paul Lingas “The Village” is the fourth major film from acclaimed writer, producer and director M. Night Shyamalan and, though it does have the surreal elements that marked his earlier films, this is his first attempt at period work. The film takes place in America, sometime in the late 19th century. The village itself is located in a small yet bountiful valley surrounded by a forest. Ringing the forest’s edge are a number of watchtowers and torches. We soon meet Mr. Walker (William Hurt), who is one of the village elders, along with Ms. Hunt (Sigourney Weaver) and others. It is made apparent that the settlers have been allowed to stay in their bucolic world by Those We Do Not Speak Of, the ...

title: Gravesend function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); studio: Island Digital Media/Polygram Video starring: Tony Tucci, Michael Parducci, Thomas Brandise, Tom Malloy release year: 1997 film rating: Three stars sound/picture: Three stars reviewed by: Bill Warren The biggest special effect in 'Gravesend' is that the movie exists at all. Shot for $5000 by then-19 year-old writer/director Salvatore Stabile, the film had another $100,000 thrown at it in post-production once Oliver Stone got involved in a mentoring capacity. Considering the technical nightmare the miniscule budget implies, the results are impressive, even if they're not anything that's going to challenge a home theater set-up.