Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe What new in home video... MOVIES Advertisement Much ado about revenge this week... "Changing Lanes" -- A compelling tale of two guys in a hurry who meet one rainy day in a minor bumper-thumper that starts out cordially but escalates into such intense road rage that each is determined to ruin the other. Gavin Banek (Ben Affleck) is a wealthy young attorney and new partner in a prestigious Wall Street law firm. Doyle Gipson (Samuel L. Jackson) is a recovering alcoholic trying to keep his family together and his volatile temper in check. They are both due in court, Banek to file a questionable document that will make his firm millions -- and avoid big legal trouble -- and Gipson in a bid to keep his fed-up wife from moving cross-country and taking the kids with her. The minor accident, after which Banek drives off, leaves Gipson stranded, furious and too late for his court date. Banek's got a big problem, too -- the must-have document fell out of his car at the accident scene, Gipson has the crucial papers and won't return them, setting up a series of outlandish maneuvers in a vengeful cat-and-mouse game that grows potentially lethal. Director Roger Michell's exceptional film, with strong performances, especially by the two leads, boldly speaks of societal pressures and the human condition and how external influences can cause an otherwise decent person to do despicable things.The daylong duel brings out the worst in the two protagonists -- but ultimately, the best as well. 2002. 99 minutes. Paramount Home Entertainment. Rated R (language). Advertisement "The Count of Monte Cristo" -- Alexandre Dumas' oft-filmed epic tale of swashbuckling adventure, betrayal and revenge returns in a bright new version that would have suited Errol Flynn quite well. It's the story of Edmund Dantes (James Caviezel), a low-born adventurer who's betrayed by his jealous "best friend," Fernand Mondego (Guy Pearce), convicted of a phony treason charge and shipped off to solitary confinement at a remote prison island. After years alone, he meets Faria (Richard Harris), a much older inmate who's trying to tunnel to freedom but tunnels into Edmund's cell instead. Edmund eventually escapes, armed with a wealth of knowledge and a hidden treasure map, thanks to Faria, and returns home, recognized now only as the fascinating count of Monte Cristo, bent on setting right the many wrongs done against him. The story is a familiar one -- it's been filmed at least 19 times in various forms -- and it may have been done better but this "Cristo" is crisply entertaining for the most part. 2002. 118 minutes. Touchstone Home Video. Rated PG-13 (adventure violence, swordplay, some sexuality). "The Salton Sea" -- Val Kilmer plays a jazz musician on a dangerous, spiraling journey into the sad, sleazy world of drugs and demons in an over-the-edge search for his wife's killers. Danny Parker, Kilmer's "undercover" character, is a broadly tattooed speed freak, given to lengthy drug binges, arranging complex drug deals and "ratting" out some of his low-life associates to a pair of roguish cops (Anthony LaPaglia and Doug Hutchison) in his seemingly self-destructive mission. His last venture brings him into contact with a first-class weirdo and the movie's most memorable character, Pooh-Bear (Vincent D'Onofrio), an overweight, overbearing, childish but deadly dealer with a giggle, a fake nose and a fiendish idea about torture. Rookie director D.J. Caruso's movie is visually stylish and inventive but usually grim, blending its depressing nature with an occasional flare of humor amid its weirdness, wasted lives and wanton violence. 2002. 103 minutes. Warner Home Video. Rated R (strong violence, drug use, language and some sexuality). Advertisement VIDBITS Coming up: Disney's animated blockbuster "Monsters, Inc.," "Panic Room" with Jody Foster, the psychological drama "Frailty" and "Kissing Jessica Stein," a romantic comedy with a twist... Billboard says "We Were Soldiers," the Vietnam combat drama starring Mel Gibson, is the No. 1 video rental this week... "9-11: The Filmmakers Commemorative Edition" -- A look at that indelible day, one year ago Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2001, as seen through the cameras of two French brothers, Gedeon and Jules Naudet, who happened to be shooting a documentary with the New York Fire Department in lower Manhattan when the planes struck. Told from a fireman's perspective -- it was shown earlier on TV and will be released on video next Thursday by Paramount -- the remarkable 130-minute film captures the incredibly frantic scene immediately after the first plane struck the World Trade Center -- Jules caught the crash on camera after hearing a roar overhead -- through the collapse of the buildings, with people running for safety through deserted rubble-strewn streets, and on through the difficult days ahead poking through the wreckage looking in vain for anyone still alive. "It looked like the end of the world," observed one fireman. Back at the firehouse, those who escaped stagger back, learning for the first time who didn't make it. A total of 343 firemen didn't. "It's not easy being a survivor," says one who did. Advertisement Most American moviegoers met Alec Guinness in the droll 1949 black comedy "Kind Hearts and Coronets," in which he played eight parts, and made him welcome for the next half-century. Anchor Bay is releasing four of Guinness's British comedies on DVD Sept. 10, including "Coronets," "The Ladykillers" (1955) and two from 1951, "The Lavender Hill Mob" and "Man in the White Suit"... Warren Lieberfarb, head of Warner Home Video, is sold on DVD. And, obviously, so is a large segment of American videoviewers, expected to spend nearly $3 billion more this year than last, a whopping 50 percent increase. The digital disc format, Lieberfarb says, "is the most successful home entertainment device in history" and believes the shift is on to permanently replace the videocassette. He pointed out in a recent interview that in five years the DVD format "has gone from zero to 30 million households" and about a fourth of those have more than one unit. Nothing, not even television itself, has caught on that fast, he says. While most video stores spotlight their DVD product over VHS and studios are spending heavily to promote it, videocassettes still are in about 90 per cent of American homes and only about one-third have DVD. That no doubt will change... Advertisement Ever wonder how much it costs to promote a movie on video -- even if it's a surefire runaway hit? Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment, for example, figures its overall campaign for the Nov. 1 release of "Spider-Man," with sponsoring partners factored in, will run about $100 million, according to Variety.
