Video: 3
Audio: 4
Extras: 3
Directed by Garry Marshall, Beaches is a story about two 11-year-old girls who meet on the beach in Atlantic City and continue to keep in touch and weather the challenges of adult life throughout the years. The film is best remembered for its ability to turn on your waterworks, but the best thing about it is that it doesn't sugarcoat what really happens in a friendship, like the one between CC Bloom (Bette Midler) and her best friend, Hillary Whitney, (Barbara Hershey). Beaches is a moving story, filled with camaraderie, jealousy, glory, pain, and forgiveness.
Video: 3
Audio: 4
Extras: 5
For The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, writer/director Wes Anderson found a new writing partner. Gone is Owen Wilson (as writer, but not as actor), who helped him pen Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, and The Royal Tenenbaums—replaced with Noah Baumbach, writer/director of one of my all-time favorite indie films, Kicking and Screaming. Add Bill Murray as the title character, and I couldn't wait to see what kind of exquisitely wry tale lay ahead.
Video: 4
Audio: 3
Extras: 1
Following a difficult breakup with his girlfriend, Peter (Marcus Thomas) decides to audition for a community-theater production of Cyrano de Bergerac, even though he lacks any acting experience. Despite a less-than-stellar reading with the theater's star actor, Michael (John Corbett), the show's producer sees a spark in Peter and gives him the part. With a lot of advice from the rest of the cast, Marcus eventually finds his inner actor—and learns a little bit about himself along the way.
Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 2
In this biopic of Bobby Darin, Kevin Spacey accomplishes quite a surprising feat: In addition to writing and directing the film and playing the role of Darin, he provides the vocals for all of the musical numbers featuring the entertainer. And he does a fine job. But, outside of this, the film sinks from the sky like a flaming zeppelin.
Video: 3
Audio: 3
Extras: 5
Earning the cinephile treatment in a new three-disc collection, the Bill & Ted oeuvre is a sweet-natured reminder that movies don't have to be art to entertain. For anyone who grew up in the neon-colored '80s, this proto-Wayne's World duo of bumbling wisdom represented the heart of teenage angst without all of the rough edges. Their concerns were simple: impending homework, elusive girls, and ill-gotten beer.
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