Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe What's new in the world of home entertainment. MOVIES Advertisement "The Bourne Identity" -- Matt Damon stars as Jason Bourne, one of several names his character has used on some dangerous secret mission in Europe (but he can't remember any of it) in this well-crafted action thriller. Based on a Robert Ludlum espionage novel, the film opens with Bourne found floating in the Mediterranean by an Italian fishing boat, two bullets in the back and a Zurich bank account number implanted in his hip. He finds early that he has remarkable fighting ability, speaks several languages fluently, has highly trained powers of observation and memory, knows all the spy tricks and has no idea who he is or how he got that way. He also discovers a lot of people out there want him dead. And even later he finds out what we already knew: He's a U.S. government assassin who botched his last job and his people at the CIA, who thought he was dead, now want to make sure of it. Collecting cash and a handful of passports at the Zurich bank, Bourne sets off for Paris after hiring a vagabond woman (Franka Potente) to drive him with a passel of fellow assassins hot on his trail. It's not easy, though, to kill a killing machine. Director Doug Limon drops some of the Ludlum complexity and depth for an explosive high-speed chase movie that, as such, works well. (The DVD version includes an alternate ending.) 2002. 116 minutes. Universal Studios Home Video. Rated PG-13 (violence, some language). Advertisement "The Banger Sisters" -- Goldie Hawn and Susan Sarandon are Suzette and Vinnie, legendary rock groupies in the raucous 60s whose lives rotated around sex, drugs and music. That was then; now, as they meet again for the first time in two decades, things are quite different. Well, at least they are for Vinnie, now known as Lavinia, the conservative, buttoned-down wife of a Phoenix attorney and mother of two teenage daughters. On the other hand, Suzette hasn't changed much. She's just about as frisky as ever, constantly bragging about the bawdy old days and downing rum and Coke like it's going out of style while tending an LA bar where the customers love her but her boss doesn't. Soon she's out of a job as well as out of money, as usual, and decides on a whim to drive to Phoenix and hit ol' buddy Vinnie up for a loan. Along the way, she picks up Harry (Geoffrey Rush), a repressed writer eager to foot the bill for a ride and finds taking a trip with Suzette is far more than just a journey. Loosening up Lavinia will be a tougher task. The plot's pretty thin and predictable, the anticipated culture clash between conformity and rebellion never really comes off and the ending's too pat. But the movie is fun to watch, primarily because of the feisty, infectious Hawn, still with some of that wide-eyed "laugh-in" goofiness. 2002. 94 minutes. For Home Entertainment. Rated R (language, sexual content, some drug use). Advertisement -0 "Dinner Rush" -- Most of the people who are flocking to Louis Cropa's popular Italian restaurant in New York's TriBeCa section tonight believe wrongly that it's mob-controlled but that's part of its charm. It's true that Louis (Danny Aiello) is a retired bookmaker but he never had any mob ties. But that could change: His partner has been murdered and two hard-eyes from Queens are seated at a table, determined to take over part of his restaurant before they leave. Louis wants to give his place to his son Udo (Edoardo Ballerini), who's also the chef, running his busy kitchen like a dictator. But Louis doesn't like what has happened to the traditional Italian family fare he loved so much as Udo has turned the eatery into a packed trendy spot with his nouvelle cuisine menu. Another complication is the compulsive gambling about to take down his sous chef Duncan (Kirk Acevedo) who's also having an affair with the head waitress (Vivian Wu). The side dishes are many as the evening progresses but director Bob Giraldo, himself a restaurateur, keeps the complexities and complications of the appetizers sorted well and the main course, burnished with humor and seemingly familiar, is misleading and sprinkled with surprises. The movie's a tasty treat and Aiello is nigh perfect as the unruffled, poker-faced Louis, who gives no hint as to what he's thinking or planning, only that he's patient, observing, "Revenge is a dish best served cold." 2000. 98 minutes. New Line Home Entertainment. Rated R (language, some violence and sexuality). Advertisement "The Foreigner" -- When free-lance agent Jonathan Cold (Steven Seagal) is asked by a shadowy employer to take a mysterious package from France to Germany he discovers right off the bat that a lot of people want to get their hands on it. But as many try, many die -- the body count is enormous -- for the supremely confident Cold is just too hot to handle. Coming the closest is Cold's ex-colleague and now arch enemy Dunois (Max Ryan), who is one hard man to put down for the count. A violent thriller of gunfights and explosions and combative distrust played out amid bleak old-worldish scenery. 2003. 98 minutes. Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment. Rated R (violence, language). "The Master of Disguise" -- Even the talented Dana Carvey has trouble being funny in this largely unfunny fantasy comedy about a family of masqueraders, certainly something right down his alley. Carvey plays Pistachio, a nerdy waiter in his father's Italian restaurant who learns to his amazement, after his father (James Brolin) is kidnapped, that he comes from a long line of masters of disguise and crimefighters. Given a crash course by his grandfather, Pistachio sets out to find nab the kidnapper and retrieve dear ol' dad, mimicking his way, from the Turtle Guy to George W. Bush, through an expected series of misadventures, aided by assistant Jennifer Esposito. 2002. 80 minutes. Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment. Rated PG (mild language, some crude humor). Advertisement "Tadpole" -- A witty, sophisticated comedy about a precocious 15-year-old boy named Oscar (Aaron Stanford), home from prep school over the Thanksgiving holiday, who in his quest for "older women" (girls his age bore him), develops a crush on his new stepmother (Sigourney Weaver). Unable to talk with her about it, he winds up in an affair with her sexy, 40ish best friend (Bebe Neuwirth). 2002. 86 minutes. Miramax Home Entertainment. Rated PG-13 (sexual content, masture thematic elements). VIDBITS Coming up: "Sweet Home Alabama," "Igby Goes Down," "Formula 51" and "Saving Sara"... "Signs" is showing the way this week among the nation's video movie renters... Headlining the February run are the hottest "sleeper" of 2002, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," due on Feb. 11, and the Tom Hanks-Paul Newman crime drama "Road To Perdition," opening on Feb. 25... Warner has announced that "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," second movie installment based on the popular book series, will be coming to video on April 11 in a double-disc DVD presentation and on VHS. It opens the same day in England, Germany and Australia... Columbia meanwhile has set an April 1 date for "Red Dragon," the prequel to "Silence of the Lambs"... And, DreamWorks plans all the trimmings for its March 4 release of the spooker "The Ring"... Advertisement New on DVD: In his final film, "The Harder They Fall" (Columbia, 1956), Humphrey Bogart plays a former sportswriter caught up in the underhanded doings of big-time boxing -- of fixed fights and creation of a phony contender, and eventually rebels at what he sees, at considerable peril. A powerful indictment of the fight game.
