VideoView --- UPI Arts & Entertainment

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MOVIES

"America's Sweethearts" -- Gwen and Eddie are America's favorite movie couple, on the screen and off and their films together have been big moneymakers. But what the fans don't know is they've broken up and Gwen (Catherine Zeta-Jones) has fallen for a Latin actor while Eddie (John Cusack) is hunkered down in the lush gardens of a famous wellness guru. Their final movie, "Time Over Time," is ready for release but the eccentric director (Christopher Walken) is holding it hostage in a studio flap. To smooth things over, cynical press agent Billy Crystal has to get Gwen and Eddie together again somehow, at least for an appearance with the media. But Gwen's sister and assistant, Kiki (Julia Roberts) has other ideas. A barbed, humorous satire of Hollywood, its superstar marriages and self-absorbed denizens with a top-flight ensemble cast. 2001. 102 minutes. Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment. Rated PG-13 (language, some crude and sexual humor).

"Laura Croft: Tomb Raider" -- Laura Croft, super-heroine of the popular video game, comes to life in a big way in this slam- bang, special effects-laden action adventure that can be quite entertaining -- if you don't think about it much. It's outlandish and often silly but is delivered with such flash and dash that it works, largely because of Angelina Jolie who plays Laura with great abandon, a sexy lady with incredible skills as she sets out coolly, confidently to once again to save the world. She's in a desperate race with a whole bunch of bad guys to find two halves of a fabled artifact that will grant godlike powers to the one putting it together again at the right moment. 2001. 100 minutes. Paramount Home Entertainment. Rated PG-13 (action violence and some sensuality).

"Crazy/Beautiful" -- In this rather formulaic tale of young love, Kirsten Dunst plays a wealthy, spoiled, bored-with-it-all teenage daughter of a congressman, always on the lookout for quick thrills. Newcomer Jay Hernandez, in his feature film debut, is Carlos, a poor but promising lad from the "wrong side of the tracks," an "A" student and football star aiming for the Naval Academy with the dream of becoming a pilot. They attend the same school but until a chance meeting never know the other exists. The attraction is immediate and firm despite the great differences in their lifestyles and objections from families and friends alike. Sure enough, problems magnify. An unlikely story but one enlivened by the acting and potent on-screen chemistry of the two leads. 2001. 88 minutes. Touchstone Home Video. Rated PG-13 (mature thematic material involving teens, drug alcohol content, sexuality and language).

"The Closet" -- There's trouble at the condom factory. Francois (Daniel Auteuil), is a meek, nerdish accountant, bullied, the butt of office jokes, afraid he's about to be fired. His wife has left him, his son can't stand him. Then, a neighbor makes an unusual suggestion: Francois should pretend to be gay and then the company would be afraid to fire him because of adverse publicity. It works. Now everybody loves Francois. Even his chief tormentor Felix (Gerard Depardieu) becomes his buddy. A pleasant, humorous French farce that becomes rather predictable after a while. 2001. 84 minutes. In French with English subtitles. Miramax Home Entertainment. Rated R (a scene of sexuality).

"Osmosis Jones" -- An imaginative but odd mixture of live action and animation built around -- and inside -- a junk food nut named Frank (Bill Murray). When Frank gulps down a hard-boiled egg that's been on the ground he also swallows a troublesome virus called Thax that sets about causing mischief in the "City of Frank" (there's a whole city deep inside the old boy) until the sterling white blood cell cop and germ fighter Osmosis (Chris Elliot) comes to the rescue. Among the voices, William Shatner, Chris Rock and Brandy. Heavy-handed humor that doesn't always work. 2001. 95 minutes. Warner Home Video. Rated PG (bodily humor).

VIDBITS

Coming up: "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" and "Planet Of The Apes"... "Dr. Dolittle 2" is this week's favorite video rental...

"Shrek" may be green but he's as good as gold for Universal and DreamWorks. They raked in the loot from the biggest opening weekend in video since "The Lion King" six years ago. Some 2.2 million copies were sold over the three-day weekend and Universal estimates consumers spent $110 million on "Shrek" videocassettes and DVD discs, nearly triple the take from the first theatrical weekend...

When "E.T." makes its expected DVD debut next spring, there'll be some changes made. Some scenes have been added, some altered. For example, the guns police brandish when chasing E.T. have been digitally changed to walkie-talkies...

For many, the World Series this year was one for the ages. Coming Dec. 1 is the official video account of the stirring seven-game spectacle, on both VHS and DVD, with action compacted to 55 minutes.

Everybody's favorite doll is a hit all over again in new surroundings. "Barbie in the Nutcracker," a computer-generated romance recently voted best animated video premiere of 2001 by the Video Premiere Academy, stars Barbie as Clara in the famous story of a girl's adventures with the Nutcracker, the Mouse King and the Sugar Plum Princess, all set to the music of Tschaikovsky.