Video: 3
Audio: 3
Extras: 4
Usually, shows that take place in a hospital fall into the hour-long drama category, with a few comedic moments thrown in to dilute the sad stuff. Scrubs has achieved something we haven't seen since M.A.S.H.—it's a hospital-based sitcom that is truly funny, with a few sad moments thrown in to dilute the happy stuff. OK, M.A.S.H. also dealt with war and managed to be funny, so it wins. But Scrubs' excellent melding of bizarre slapstick, wonderfully flawed but lovable characters, and genuine sentiment has made it one of the best sitcoms on TV right now.
Video: 4
Audio: 3
Extras: 2
Based on the short French film La Jetée, 12 Monkeys follows poor, hapless convict and time traveler Cole. He is tasked with preventing a plague that wiped out most of humanity. Time travel not being an exact sport, he is tossed around a bit, and everybody thinks he's insane. Monty Python alum Terry Gilliam directs one of the best science fiction movies of the 1990s. Bruce Willis plays poor Cole, while Brad Pitt is truly incredible as nutcase Jeffrey Goines.
Video: 4
Audio: 5
Extras: 3
Director John Moore had a lot going for him when he helmed this 2004 remake of the 1965 original. He used CGI and other effects barely dreamed of 40 years ago to create the harrowing plane crash that sets the plot in motion. Can the survivors escape the desert that threatens to kill them? Moore also effectively filmed his African location using aerial photography and wide-angle lenses to portray its vastness, eliminating much of the original film's stage-play feel. What Moore didn't have, though, were actors like Jimmy Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Peter Finch, and the rest of the original cast. The new players are good (Giovanni Ribisi is a stand-out), but they tend to lean on the special effects to create the suspense and drama that the original actors could muster alone.
Video: 4
Audio: 3
Extras: 4
This is one funny movie. It's the kind of film that you can pick up years later and appreciate all over again. Bill Pullman and John Candy star as two space cadets, literally and figuratively, who rescue a kidnapped princess. Together, this motley crew attempts to save the planet Druidia from the evil Dark Helmet, who plans to steal the planet's fresh air.
Video: 4
Audio: 5
Extras: 2
While some fans lament the seemingly imploding film career of the latest prettier half of "Bennifer," what's really sad is that Hollywood has managed to take Elektra, the dark, driven creation of the great Frank Miller, and reinvent her as just another melodramatic heroine. As portrayed by the lithe, earnest Jennifer Garner, "E" is a conflicted killer with quirky habits (obsessive-compulsive disorder for a few quick laughs!), who squares off against a slew of overdone computer-generated special effects. Oh, and did I mention the precocious young sidekick and the hunky single dad next door? Had the filmmakers gone for gritty action and an R rating instead of the flashy fantasy nonsense, this movie could have been great instead of just OK. Even at a mere 96 minutes, it's a tad sluggish.
Video: 4
Audio: 3
Extras: 4
It's almost summertime, and, for you die-hard football fans who can't wait until pigskin season, here's the movie to get you through the interim. Friday Night Lights is the true story of Permian High School's football team and their road to the Texas state championship game. If you're from Texas (or anywhere that lauds high school football Fridays), then you're no doubt familiar with just how important high school football is in these towns.
Video: 4
Audio: 3
Extras: 2
I don't know if I hearted Huckabees, but I liked it an awful lot. It's an odd film (I expect nothing less from David O. Russell, the writer/director of Three Kings and Flirting with Disaster) about an environmental activist (Jason Schwartzman) who hires a pair of existential detectives to help him find meaning in a coincidence that he's experienced. With an incredibly strong cast at his disposal, Russell manages to explore weighty philosophical, political, and social subjects in a way that's both thoroughly relentless and charmingly playful.
Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 3
Halle Berry revived the comics' most seductive villain in 2004. Aside from a new midriff-revealing leather catsuit (meow!), there's little to recommend this movie, which produced a hairball at the box office.
Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 4
A twisting, turning, supernatural story, The Forgotten stars Julianne Moore as Telly, a woman grieving the loss of her 8-year-old son. The only problem is, everyone around her insists that the boy she misses so desperately never actually existed. As she continues to cling to her memories, she finds herself sinking further into a nightmare. Although the heart of the film is about the unbreakable bond between parent and child, the story offers enough government conspiracy and X-Files-type intrigue to give it wider appeal.
Video: 2
Audio: 2
Extras: 0
What's funny about a group of staid suburban Texans who take life much too seriously? Pretty much everything, as their Emmy Award–winning third season proves, from the all-time-great "And They Call It Bobby Love," with guest voice Sarah Michelle Gellar (the episode culminates in a cheer-out-loud eating contest), to the darkly comic skydiving mishap in the season finale.
Video: 4
Audio: 3
Extras: 3
In Mira Nair's (Monsoon Wedding) adaptation 19th-century Europe meets the cultural vibrancy of India. Reese Witherspoon stars as the ambitious heroine, Becky Sharp, one of literature's most intriguing and complex female characters. With nothing but wit, beauty, and sensuality at her disposal, Sharp travels on her scheme-filled journey to the height of society, only to find that the destination is as morally low as the gutter from which she came. Gabriel Bryne joins the cast as the devious Marquess of Steyne, along with James Purefoy as Rawdon Crawley. Witherspoon's performance is short of convincing, lacking a smooth transition from coyish girl to brazen coquette.
Video: 5
Audio: 5
Extras: 5
A sweet, charming story of enduring first love, The Notebook follows Noah (Ryan Gosling) and Allie (Rachel McAdams), two teenagers who indulge in a heated summer romance that Allie's mother frowns upon. However, despite efforts to keep the couple apart, a chance meeting seven years later brings the twosome back together again.
Video: 4
Audio: 3
Extras: 3
Fresh off his success in Pulp Fiction, John Travolta cemented his mid-'90s comeback with Get Shorty, a fun, clever adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel about a loan shark who decides to get out of the business and into The Business, aka movie-making. Travolta so thoroughly inhabits the character of Chili Palmer that it's hard to believe he initially turned down the role. It was Quentin Tarantino who ultimately convinced Travolta to take the part. (Where was he when Travolta decided to take Battlefield Earth?)
Video: 3
Audio: 3
Extras: 3
Films like Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Dazed and Confused come along about once every 10 years. Both manage to cut through the sexual hijinks and drug jokes inherent in all so-called "teen flicks" to really capture what it was like to grow up in a particular time and place. I can watch both of these movies over and over, and that's why I love them: I get older, and they stay the same age.
Video: 3
Audio: 4
Extras: 3
Abducted Jessica Martin's frantic wire-connecting on a smashed-up landline phone finally connects her with cell-phoned surfer-dude Ryan (Chris Evans) in Cellular, an action thriller that has just enough cool touches to make it effective. After Jessica (Kim Basinger) is threatened by three men looking for her husband, she is forced to protect her child, give up his locale, and beg this skeptical stranger to believe her and help her. Ryan eventually does and is determined to aid and not lose their tenuous phone link. Part Speed, part Phone Booth, this ride is filled with crashes and chases and is a high-octane trip that's a taut 95 minutes.
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