Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe What's new in the world of video... MOVIES Advertisement "Black Hawk Down" -- Ridley Scott's harrowing war story tells of a supposedly routine U.S. mission gone disastrously wrong. The scene is Mogadishu, Somalia, 1993, where feuding warlords have steered their country into calamity, even seizing U.N. food shipments destined for their starving people. Elite American troops, in helicopters and on the ground, are sent to raid a meeting of the warlord Aidid's top lieutenants, hoping to flush out Aidid as well. But they meet deadly resistance as the warlord's troops quickly gather, surround the U.S. positions and shoot down two helicopters. The Americans, cut off from their support ground convoy, are forced to stand and fight for their lives against overwhelming odds. Based on fact, the film aims to give the viewer some idea of what it was like during those desperate hours and Scott vividly reconstructs the chain of events hour by hour, step by step. This is not a star-driven vehicle and the actors -- Josh Hartnett, Ewen McGregor, Sam Shepard, Tom Sizemore, et al -- fit their roles quite well. 2001. 143 minutes. Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment. Rated R (intense, realistic, graphic war violence and language). Advertisement "Monster's Ball" -- This is a hard-hitting tale of Hank and Leticia, two desperately lonely people from radically different backgrounds, beaten down by tragedy, who find unlikely solace with each other. We're in the Deep South, mid '90s; she's black, he's white, but for them, for now at least, race is not an issue. Leticia (Halle Berry in her Oscar-winning performance) works the night shift in a diner, has a fat little son and an ex-husband on death row. Hank (Billy Bob Thornton) is a corrections officer who soon will carry out the execution of her former husband, a cop-killer. Hank's good at his job but his home life is a disaster, what with a mean, racist father (Peter Boyle) and a soft-hearted son (Heath Ledger), trying hopelessly to follow in his dad's footsteps. Hank and Leticia meet after both have been staggered by unexpected calamities and turn to each other for some refuge from their bleak lives -- and some steamy sex. Berry and Thornton give powerful performances. She won an Oscar; he wasn't even nominated and that's a huge oversight. 2001. 111 minutes. Lions Gate Home Entertainment. Rated R (strong sexual content, language and violence). Advertisement "Kate and Leopold" -- A charming romantic fable about two people very much in love, separated only by a hundred years or so. Kate (Meg Ryan) is a dynamic 21st century woman, fighting her way up the crowded corporate ladder. Leopold (Hugh Jackman) is the third duke of Albany, a pleasant gent and noted eligible bachelor, a handsome figure of the 1880s. Both are quite skeptical about ever finding the right one for them -- until they finally meet, thanks to a time warp that propels Leopold into modern-day Manhattan. First off, he's amazed the Brooklyn Bridge, which was being built when he left home, is still standing. Before long, he bumps into Kate who, though not buying that time travel stuff at first, helps him make a quick transition and they naturally fall in love even though his travel visa is about to run out. 2001. 11 minutes. Miramax Home Entertainment. Rated PG-13 (brief strong language). "Blue Velvet: Special Edition" -- Sixteen years after its release, David Lynch's disturbing tale of sexual awakening and dark doings in a bright little town is still a shocker, at times mesmerizing, beautifully filmed with a lush digital transfer -- and still super-weird. When young Jeffrey (Kyle MacLachlan), home from college, finds a severed human ear in a field he unwisely follows up on the mystery, landing himself right in the midst of a world of menace and cruelty. No one could be more menacing and cruel than Frank (played to the hilt by Dennis Hopper), a sadistic psychotic who snorts relaxants and abuses poor confused singer Dorothy (Isabella Rossellini) and, eventually, Jeffrey, too. 1986. 121 minutes. MGM Home Entertainment. Rated R (sexuality, nudity, language). Advertisement VIDBITS Coming up next: "Shipping News," "I Am Sam," "The Majestic," "Rollerball" and "Max Keeble's Big Move"... "Vanilla Sky" and "Ocean's Eleven" are running 1-2 among the nation's VHS and DVD movie rentals... "The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring" bows on video Aug. 6... As reported earlier, "E.T. the Extra Terrestrial" will make its DVD debut on Oct. 22. But, it'll be on the market for only 10 weeks... Variety reports nearly 10 million copies of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" sold during its first week of release in the U.S. and Canada... New on DVD: John Ford's 1949 sagebrush saga "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon." In one of his best performances, John Wayne plays an aging cavalry officer coping with his approaching retirement in the days following the Battle of Little Big Horn. The real star, however, is the scenery, Arizona's majestic Monument Valley, captured in Oscar-winning Technicolor style by cinematographer Winston Hoch... From TV: The second season of "Friends" gets the DVD treatment Sept. 3 in a 24-episode package. Later the same month, on the 24th: the first season of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"... Advertisement Newly remastered DVD versions of some of the best work of Charlie Chaplin, the funny man for all seasons, are expected to be ready by next spring for a new generation of potential fans. Warner Home Video announced 18 Chaplin feature films would be included, among them "The Gold Rush" (1925), "City Lights" (1931), "Modern Times" (1936) and "The Great Dictator" (1940), plus never-before-seen outtakes, backstage glimpses and family home movie footage.
