VideoView -- UPI Arts & Entertainment

, March 7 (UPI) -- What's new on the home video scene...

Movies

Two new movies on video this week deal with a veteran criminal trying to retire and the determined forces that try to keep him from it.

In David Mamet's crisp crime caper, "Heist," with its crackling dialogue and a plot with more twists than a can of worms, Gene Hackman is a boat-builder and master jewel thief who pulls off one last job, or so he thinks, and makes ready to sail into the sunset with his young wife (Rebecca Pidgeon). But Mickey, his greedy fence and sometimes financier (played by Danny DeVito), has other ideas and forces him into one more theft, a tricky affair involving a planeload of gold. And Hackman's character, Joe Moore, loves gold. Joe brings back his team (Delroy Lindo and Ricky Jay) to set up the job and Mickey insists his loose-canon nephew (Sam Rockwell) go along to protect his interests. Things get even more topsy-turvy from then on and it's difficult to tell who's doing what to whom much of the time and how does one hide all that gold anyway? As Joe notes, getting the goods is easy; it's getting away that's tough. 2001. 107 minutes. Warner Home Entertainment. Rated R (language, some violence).

The more forceful of the two is "Sexy Beast," in which Ben Kingsley, portraying a character about as far removed from Ghandi as he could get -- and doing a great job of it, plays Don Logan, a vicious gangster determined to talk a retired safecracker into pulling one more job, a high-stakes London bank heist. It's a hard nut to crack because Gal (Ray Winstone) is now a happily married man living the life of ease in a picturesque Spanish villa and wants no more of his risky past. Further, he and Logan have long been enemies in the world of crime. But saying no could be much riskier, in fact, deadly. Logan, who has flown to Spain from London to recruit Gal, is not a man to dicker with, becoming violent at any opposition and things escalate quickly toward a nasty showdown. Director Jonathan Glazer's feature film debut is largely a battle of wills with a strong acting ensemble and a story built around the loathsome Logan and Kingsley's splendid, thoroughly menacing, Oscar-nominated performance. 2001. 88 minutes. Fox Home Entertainment. Rated R (pervasive language, strong violence, some sexuality).

"Zoolander" -- Busy man Ben Stiller co-wrote, co-produced, directed and stars in this outlandish fashion world satire in which he plays Derek Zoolander, a male supermodel long on charisma but short on brains. In fact, words like stupid, moron, idiot fit him well, along with incredibly self-centered . Having been chosen male model of the year three years in a row, he's stunned when a fresh-faced newcomer called Hansel (Owen Wilson) is named No. 1. Crushed, his famous "blue steel" stare dimmed, Derek begins to wonder whether "there's more to life than being really, really ridiculously good looking" when he's hired to show off the new line of kinky fashion czar Mogatu (Will Farrell). But it's all a ruse and Derek's too dumb to realize he's being set up to assassinate a major political figure. Now being dressed to kill takes on a whole new meaning. Stiller sprinkles in enough funny bits to sustain nicely what is basically an extended skit. 2001. 89 minutes. Paramount Home Entertainment. Rated PG-13 (sexual content, drug references).

"JoyRide" -- This tense road thriller is anything but a joy ride. And what a ride it is. Brothers Lewis (Paul Walker) and Fuller (Steve Zahn) are driving cross-country to pick up Lewis' friend Venna (LeeLee Sobieski) when they unwisely decide to play a trick on a trucker they hear on their CB radio, a childish prank with deadly consequences. The trucker, finding out he's been duped, retaliates violently by ramming their car, almost forcing them over a cliff, then drives off. Lewis and Fuller, thinking it's over and having no luck with the local authorities, collect Venna, as if nothing had happened, and start back. But they soon discover they're still being stalked and the unhinged trucker has more hands to play -- including a harrowing chase through a cornfield and a suspenseful showdown in a motel -- before he's even. And being even will mean someone has to die. A real nail-biter. 2001. 96 minutes. Fox Home Entertainment. Rated R (violence/terror, language).

VIDBITS

Coming up next: "Training Day" with Oscar nominees Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawk, the intense drama "Focus" and the creepy "Donnie Darko"... "Don't Say A Word," the Michael Douglas thriller, is the new No. 1 video rental across the land...

An account of last January's Super Bowl clash, in which New England upset St. Louis, reached video shelves this week, armed with about 400,000 advance orders, most ever for a sports video, according to USA Home Entertainment... Looking ahead, Disney is releasing the animated hit "Monsters, Inc." on VHS and DVD Sept. 7. Execs expect revenue to double the $261 million box-office take. Disney also has scheduled the first DVD release of "Beauty And The Beast" on Oct. 8, an early announced entry in the 2002 holiday gold rush...

A special edition of "Moulin Rouge," the flashy musical nominated for eight Oscars, including one for best picture, is being reissued on VHS with an additional 25 minutes of footage. Director Baz Luhrmann's work is also on display in a new two-disc DVD release of his 1996 version of "Romeo And Juliet" with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes... For foreign film fans, a restored DVD rendition of Fellini's 1965 masterwork "Juliet Of The Spirits"... For the small fry: "Scooby Doo And The Reluctant Werewolf"...

And if you're a fan of Bob Hope, who turns 99 in a couple of months, there's a new DVD collection of some of his best work, including his first movie, "Big Broadcast Of 1938," in which he introduces "Thanks For The Memory," and four of his famous '40s road movies with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour, destinations Singapore, Zanzibar, Morocco and Utopia...