From classic comedy to kids' fare to 'Below'
By Terry Lawson
Knight Ridder News Service
You can argue forever the merits of one screwball comedy over another, but any serious debate will include Leo McCarey's 1937 classic "The Awful Truth," now on DVD in its best-yet incarnation (Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment).
Cary Grant and Irene Dunne — in her best performance, I'm willing to argue — star as soon-to-be-divorced sophisticates who can still find just about anything to fight over, including the custody of their dog, Mr. Smith.
Grant learns Dunne is marrying a hayseed — played by Ralph Bellamy, no less — and counters with his own engagement, to an aristocrat. The rest of the film is spent on their comic efforts to foil the other's plans, and every attempt is more hilarious than the last. There are no extras, but this is plenty.
Ready for family viewing
So where was 20th Century-Fox Home Entertainment last week when the kids were out of school? It has waited until now to release new titles in its Family Feature series: a beloved boy-and-his-horse drama with Roddy McDowall, 1943's "My Friend Flicka"; 1995's "Far From Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog," in which Jesse Bradford and his golden Lab are marooned on an island off British Columbia; 1995's "Bushwhacked," with Daniel Stern as a screw-up in trouble with the law who hides out as a Scout leader.
Best of all is 1986's "Lucas," which is so endearing you wonder where star Corey Haim went wrong. Haim's an outgoing geek who falls for the new girl in school, but her sights are set on his handsome and hip best pal, played by — get ready — Charlie Sheen. Winona Ryder made her big-screen debut as the girl Lucas is fated for.
Fox hasn't included the 1959 adaptation of Jules Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth" in this series, but it's a rousing family adventure.
Also hitting the shelves are these titles oriented to younger children: "Strawberry Shortcake: Spring for Strawberry Shortcake"; "Sesame Street: Get Up and Dance"; "SpongeBob Square-Pants: Lost at Sea"; "Scooby-Doo! Legend of the Vampire," with games, music videos and commentary by Scooby himself; and "Inspector Gadget 2" (Disney DVD), a direct-to-video sequel to the 1999 comedy with French Stewart stepping into Matthew Broderick's trench coat.
More recent movies
Catching up with what you missed at the multiplex: "Moonlight Mile" (Touchstone Home Entertainment) stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a young man whose fiancée is murdered; Dustin Hoffman and Susan Sarandon play her grieving parents. The story was inspired by the murder of writer-director Brad Silberling's fiancée, but it has a wry, knowing humor that purposely contradicts the somberness of the subject.
"Swimfan" (Fox) has Jesse Bradford as a high school swimmer whose carefully plotted future is threatened by a scheming Erika Christensen. It's hokum of the talk-back-to-the-screen sort.
"I Spy" (Columbia TriStar) has nothing but a title and the racial composition of its heroes (Eddie Murphy and Luke Wilson) in common with the '60s TV series; nearly any episode of the TV spy spoof would be funnier than this feature.
"White Oleander" (Warner) suffers only by comparison to the novel on which it's based: Alison Lohman is compelling as the teenage daughter of Michelle Pfeiffer, an artist sentenced to prison for the murder of an abusive boyfriend.
A similar pleasant surprise can be found in "Below" (Dimension Home Video), a tense World War II-era submarine spooker that benefits from a fine script and acting by Bruce Greenwood and Olivia Williams.
