DVD Title: Sin City
DVD Release Date: August 16, 2005
Starring: Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Benicio Del Toro, Clive Owen, Rosario Dawson, Alexis Bledel, Mickey Rourke.

DVD Review: “Sin City” is, in a word, a blast. This movie is one that really does look like a comic book come to life on a screen. Simply on a visual level, the film is mind-blowing. I was in awe of the style from beginning to end. The film is a dark, dirtubing, and enthralling. “Sin City” is set in a world full of serial killers and prostitutes, corrupt politicians and child molesters. The gritty, grimy quality of the story is not exploitive, though. It explores the theme from different viewpoints, managing to be intelligent and compelling all the while.

DVD Title: Mr. & Mrs. Smith
DVD Release Date: November 29, 2005
Starring: Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Vince Vaughn, Adam Brody, Kerry Washington.

DVD Review: “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” is a romantic comedy disguised as an action movie. It shines with co-stars Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt in the title roles. John and Jane Smith are an ordinary suburban couple with an ordinary, lifeless suburban marriage. But they are keeping a rather large secret from one another – that both are actually assassins, and they work for rival organizations. Mr. and Mrs. Smith both discover a new source of excitement in their marriage, when they are hired to assassinate each other.

DVD Title: King Kong
DVD Release Date: March 28, 2006
Starring: Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Colin Hanks.

DVD Review: At three hours, seven minutes this film is as big as King Kong himself. Peter Jackson, the director, manages to capture several films in one epic. It encompasses the thrilling treasure hunt, the adventure on Skull Island, and the action of Kong in the City. As Jackson imagines it, the story is one of friendship. It is a troubled friendship between Ann Darrow and King Kong, for Kong understands so little, and Ann can do so little. They are helpless and doomed, for the rest of the world, whether out of greed or out of fear, will unite to destroy them.

DVD Title: Kingdom of Heaven
DVD Release Date: October 11, 2005
Starring: Orlando Bloom, Liam Neeson, Eva Green, Marton Csokas, Brendan Gleeson, Jeremy Irons, Alexander Siddig.

DVD Review: “Kingdom of Heaven” is probably about as good a movie as anyone could make about the Crusades. Balian, a village blacksmith in France, discovers he is the illegitimate son of Sir Godfrey. Godfrey is a knight returning from the Middle East, who paints Jerusalem not in terms of a holy war but in terms of its opportunities for an ambitious young man. Godfrey promises that, “There at the end of the world you are not what you were born but what you have it in yourself to be.” For Balian, Jerusalem confronts him with uncomfortable decisions, in which there is no clear-cut moral choice. Death is the consequence of every course of action.