Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

The problem with making films with a seasonal setting is that the draw to watch them tends to be fixed for that particular time of year. It’s a particular issue if the movie in question is based at Christmas. So, watching Michael Dougherty’s anti-Santa flick with spring just around the corner (although the weather doesn’t seem to agree) is a little challenging. It’s a good job, then that Krampus, like the writer/director’s earlier Trick ‘r Treat, is just the right side of fun to keep the interest.

It’s Christmas Eve, and terror lurks in the Engel household. Something so terrible it sends shivers down the spine of all involved. It’s the annual visit from the relatives. Mom Sarah (Collette) has married into a decent life with Tom (Scott), living with their kids and the paternal grandmother (Krista Stadler). The visiting clan are a bunch that almost makes the Griswalds appear appealing. Howard and Linda (the ever-watchable Koechner and Tolman respectively) have their obnoxious children in tow, as well as Aunt Dorothy (Ferrell); they all want to be there as much as they are welcome, but traditions must be followed.
When Max (Anthony) is teased for his letter to Santa, he retreats to his bedroom upset. Tossing the ripped paper into the air appears to set in motion a Christmas they won’t forget – but one all too familiar to Grandma Engel. One by one, the family will come under attack or be taken by a series of nightmarish creatures – ranging from vicious gingerbread men to psychotic elves and murderous Jack-in-the-box clowns. The worst is yet to come as Krampus himself is to pay a visit for those who haven’t necessarily been good all year.

Although the sum of the parts may well seem hackneyed and predictable, the likeable cast (and especially the insufferable characters) make the action enjoyable. While it’s not as scary as it should be, there is enough horror and thrills to keep the less demanding fan pleased. The family dynamic is the draw here, with our sympathies and loyalty purely with young Max, while he tries to weather the storm that hits his home – and that’s even before the titular anti-Claus makes his presence felt.

It’s a shame that the seasonal theme ties it too much to one time of year. While Trick r’ Treat was entertaining enough to spin at almost any time, whether you’ll want to dig out this frosty fear flick in the middle of summer is another thing.

KRAMPUS / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: MICHAEL DOUGHERTY / SCREENPLAY: TODD CASEY, MICHAEL DOUGHERTY, ZACH SHIELDS / STARRING: ADAM SCOTT, TONI COLLETTE, DAVID KOECHNER, ALLISON TOLMAN, CONCHATA FERRELL, EMJAY ANTHONY / RELEASE DATE: APRIL 25TH

 

If not for the fact that it famously inspired Dan O’Bannon to write the script for Alien twenty years later, it’s unlikely that It! The Terror From Beyond Space would have found a niche for itself in the history of science-fiction movies. Despite its claustrophobic setting and its occasional sense of threat and isolation, It! isn’t all that because, even by 1950s B-Movie standards, the monster’s a bit ropey, largely incompetent and quite clearly a man lumbering about in a rubber suit waving his arms around.

Far in the future – 1973! – a manned mission to Mars is in trouble. All the crew are dead, apart from Colonel Edward Carruthers (Thompson) and a rescue mission has arrived to bring him home to face a court martial. He’s suspected of killing the rest of his crew to conserve rations, not knowing if and when a rescue mission will arrive (shades of The Martian). Carruthers, however, insists that a hostile Martian life form slaughtered all his colleagues. Not unreasonably, no one aboard the rescue ship believes him – until the humanoid lizard-like creature emerges from the depths of the ship, where it’s been hiding since gaining access through an engine vent and starts to pick off the crew.

It’s a good, straightforward story, of course, but It! is scuppered by weak direction, which fails to make the most of its potential and throws away any and every opportunity to make its predatory alien even remotely threatening. It all looks reasonably promising at first, with the odd claw revealed here and there, the occasional shadow promising something visceral and terrifying. But it rapidly goes off the boil when the monster – which looks as if it’s getting in an early audition for the 1960s Irwin Allen rubber-monsterfest Lost In Space – starts rushing about the ship roaring and waving its claws ineffectually, and making no effort to move or look like an alien life-form, resembling nothing so much as a bored stunt man in an uncomfortable monster costume.  The multi-levelled design of the spaceship interior set is ingenious but it offers little opportunity for real excitement. One character spends an inordinate amount of time hiding virtually in plain sight behind a pipe, waving a blowtorch in the creature’s face, as it makes half-hearted attempts to get him out.

The tension improves slightly as the astronauts suit up and hide away, as far as they can, from the approaching creature and the finale will provide an extra frisson for those who have already recognised the film’s core resemblance to Alien. But It! remains sluggish, visually drab and, despite its cultural significance within the genre, rather forgettable and distinctly one-note. Worth a look just to see where a genuine classic was born, and even though it’s little over an hour long, it seems quite a bit longer.

IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE (1958) / CERT: 12 / DIRECTOR: EDWARD L CAHN / SCREENPLAY: JEROME BIXBY / STARRING: MARSHALL THOMPSON, SHIRLEY PATTERSON, KIM SPALDING, MIKE DORAN, DABBS GREER / RELEASE DATE: 25TH APRIL

In order to complete a successful Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign, you need a strong – if not necessarily original – idea, and Scream Park certainly has that. Twice over it seems, given that it was successfully funded through both of those platforms. It’s a shame the publicity has focussed so heavily on the twist ending though, as the story of a bunch of amusement park employees whose afterhours party is disturbed in the most fatal fashion ought to have been enough to draw potential viewers. Disclosing the reason for the killers’ arrival isn’t the film’s biggest problem, however; after eight months of production, it’s sad that despite a healthy enough conceit and a cast of likeable if occasionally rather green actors, the finished film feels like an incomplete rough-cut. 

Visitor numbers are dropping at Fright Land to such an alarming extent that the owners have filed for bankruptcy and the park is on the brink of closing down, when a handful of the teenage staff make the worst decision of their lives by holding a lock-in party the very night that owner Mr Hyde has chosen to take matters into his own hands. As Jennifer searches for her missing would-be boyfriend Blake and Allison arranges the provision of alcohol, Marty tries to impress upon the workers the importance of organising their post-employment paperwork and Tony and Carlee sneak off to christen the women’s facilities. Meanwhile the uptight caretaker Henry gets more than he bargains for as he does his late night rounds.

It might have been a lot of fun, and the set-up certainly introduces the characters and their preoccupations assuredly enough. But the acting is patchy; with half the cast as convincing and confident as the other half are tentative and inadequate. Meanwhile the photography is mostly accomplished, with some nice establishing shots and a decent grasp of place. There are a number of occasions where camera glitches have been allowed to remain, however, presumably due to the lack of enough funds for replacement shots, and although the musical score is excellent it’s in the ambient soundtrack that the biggest problems arise.

The combination of inconsistently placed microphones, intermittent ADR and a lack of foley results in unpredictable ambiences, disappearing voices and inappropriate silences, and creates a huge distance between the film and its audience – which would have been simple to rectify and would have made a huge difference to the end result. Scream Park would still have been an amateur work, but passably rather than hopelessly so. Unfortunately the producers seem to have settled for second best, and therefore it’s impossible to allow your disbelief to suspend itself fully enough to easily enjoy the outcome. An almost worthwhile effort.

Special Features: trailer / bloopers 

SCREAM PARK / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: CARY HILL / SCREENPLAY: CARY HILL / STARRING: WENDY WYGANT, DOUG BRADLEY / RELEASE DATE: 25TH APRIL

There is no doubt that Mark Chapman shot John Lennon outside The Dakota building, New York, on 8 December 1980. There was no need for a massive hunt for the murderer, after shooting Lennon four times in the back, Chapman calmly waited for the police to arrive. 

This made-for-TV documentary, originally released 25 years after the event, chooses to investigate why and how Chapman came to shoot Lennon. Much of the production contains re-enactments of key moments in Chapman’s life leading up to that fateful day in December 1980, and what went on in his disturbed mind, through a series of taped interviews with him recorded by journalist Jack Jones.

Chapman was a Beatle fan until he became a born again Christian in 1971, and he largely forgot about them as he carried on with his life. He went from one odd job to another and after a suicide attempt in 1977; he was treated for clinical depression. In the following period he became increasingly obsessed with the novel Catcher in the Rye and identified himself with its main character, Holden Caulfield. 

In his head he had a hierarchy of imaginary characters in government-type departments that answered to him as President. They didn’t approve of his intention to kill Lennon, so they were replaced by other more amenable mental entities. A war was fought in his mind between good and evil, but the evil side got the upper hand. When he read John Lennon: One Day at a Time by Anthony Fawcet, he became increasingly angry because he regarded him as a rich phony that sung about peace and love. 

As the experts in this film note, Chapman has never had any remorse for his actions, and in prison he has written reams of notes that justify his behaviour and views. He is completely narcissistic and Lennon was just a thing to focus on and shoot in order to come out of the shadow of failure and obscurity.

This is a chilling story told in a matter-of-fact fashion that provides an insight into Chapman’s twisted mind.

I KILLED JOHN LENNON / CERT: EXEMPT / DIRECTOR: CHRIS WILSON / NARRATOR: JOHN SIMM / RELEASE DATE: 25TH APRIL 

You really shouldn’t feel all that cheated when the engrossing fantasy anime Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works leaves you on a cliffhanger after an entire season Although one could be cynical and argue that these twelve episodes act as something of a prequel to the main event (i.e., season 2), this first season offers a rich, riveting tale of war mixed with some delicate, finely-tuned character dynamics.

One of several anime adaptations of Type-Moon’s Fate series of visual novels, Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works follows a duo of high school students, Shiro Emiya and Rin Tohsaka, as their relationship develops within The Fifth Holy Grail War, a secretive magical tournament in which Masters are teamed up with spiritual warriors known as Servants, all of whom do battle against each other for the coveted Holy Grail, able to grant its winner any wish they desire.

The war itself is a tricky business though, with identities being kept secret, rules being broken, and Emiya being unwittingly dragged into the whole affair, his desire to be a self-proclaimed hero of justice repeatedly clashing with Tohsaka’s no-nonsense fight to the death attitude. The Holy Grail War itself, at a glance, doesn’t get a whole lot of love itself throughout the season. It’s talked about a hell of a lot between the characters, but it all amounts to a hefty handful of moments when Fate/stay night’s action side really gets a firm grasp of things. When it does however, it’s highly welcome, blending crisp, gorgeous animation with head-swooning direction makes for hook-laden battles throughout. The more these battles take place however, the more you realize that Fate/stay night isn’t lazy with its action as first thought, it’s economical.

Nothing here is overblown or overdone, these 14 episodes strike a strong balance between blitzkrieg-level action that threatens to tear the world apart (is there ever an anime where the stakes are any less?) and more intimate, immersive characters, who’s diverse motives and personalities give them a sense of welcome individuality.

The plot of the anime is as deceptive as its initially slow, cumbersome beginnings. The first few episodes give the illusion that the whole affair is going to be nothing more than dragging character studies, and the set-up of high school kids fighting in a fantasy-themed war may reek of unoriginality in the world of anime, but Fate/stay night offers twists and turns that have a freshness in their unexpected nature.

Oddly enough, both familiar plot and conflicting characters benefit each other, the well-worn plot giving the characters room to develop and intrigue as the season progresses, and the characters themselves opening doors for the plot to really swing in its twists and turns.

Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works may take a while to get going, but once it does you’ll find it difficult not to become intrigued by its mature fusion of ambitious adventure and diverse characters. As mentioned, it may well be annoying to find that this first season insists on letting the story continue into a second season, where far grander action and deeper drama is promised, but for now Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works is an immensely solid affair. This anime finds potency in taking familiar themes and delivering them in a straight-faced manner that still manages delight in throwing curveball after curveball. Roll on season 2!

FATE/STAY NIGHT: UNLIMITED BLADE WORKS / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: TAKAHIRO MIURA / SCREENPLAY: KINOKO NASU / STARRING: MELA LEE, KARI WAHLGREN, KAIJI TANG, BRYCE PAPENBROOK / RELEASE DATE: 25TH APRIL

O-Ei is the beautiful, strong-willed daughter of Katsushika Hokusai, the ukiyo-e master made famous in the western world thanks to his often-copied woodblock print ‘The Great Wave off Kanagawa’. O-Ei and her father live and work in a single room in the city that will one day be called Tokyo and their art is their only focus – they don’t clean, they don’t tidy, and if their surroundings get too dirty they simply move on to somewhere else.

It is the Edo period, and O-Ei is an anachronism. Outside her father’s studio, she is the polite, demure young lady that Japanese society expects. Inside, she smokes a pipe, isn’t afraid to express her feelings, and works hard at perfecting her own art. Her speciality are erotic drawings and portraits of the courtesans who ply their trade behind the paper screens of Yoshiwara, the red light district.

Hokusai isn’t an easy man to like. Even O-Ei describes him as a ‘nut’ and a ‘cry-baby’, but although the words they exchange are few the love and respect they feel for each other is palpable. What isn’t so easy to forgive is Hokusai’s apparent neglect of his youngest daughter O-Nao, who was born blind and lives with their mother in another part of the city. It is the bond between O-Ei and her younger sibling which gives Miss Hokusai some of its most memorable moments, especially a sequence when the two sisters go walking through the snow and a young boy playfully lures O-Nao into a snowball fight. It’s a beautiful scene that would have been perfect if this were a live-action film, but is made even more powerful by some extraordinary animation.

But this isn’t really a biopic – so little is known about O-Ei’s actual life that the filmmakers have taken the barebones of history and woven a fantastic story around them: while Miss Hokusai is a film about many things – love and art especially – it also, very occasionally, takes a nod towards the supernatural: after O-Ei accidentally ruins her father’s dragon painting, and he refuses to begin another, she shoos him outside and paints the dragon herself, while a ‘real’ dragon whips sinuously through the clouds above their house… and then there is the possessed courtesan, whose face takes on a life of its own while she lies sleeping… and a demonic painting that terrorises its owner until Hokusai arrives to put everything right with just a subtle brushstroke.

The animation isn’t as flashy as a Studio Ghibli production but nor does it need to be. Director Keiichi Hara and his team haven’t wasted time filling in every detail, which means the details they do focus upon are even more impressive – the breeze fluttering a banner, the beautifully observed way O-Ei yawns in her sleep, her mouth trembling, the manner in which O-Ei tucks a flower into the sleeve of O-Nao’s kimono for safekeeping. Miho Maruo’s screenplay is equally as subtle, with a psychological depth we don’t usually find in even the best animation, and includes some lovely flashes of humour – the scene when the young artist Hatsugoro clumsily attempts to declare his love to O-Ei and ends up buying a potted plant instead is wonderful.

Miss Hokusai proves that animation, a genre normally reserved for children and fantasy worlds, is an art form that’s not only capable of telling grown-up stories but – when the right subject presents itself – can tell that story better than any other category of cinema. Miss Hokusai is a masterpiece and this will be, without a doubt, one of the standout releases of the year.

MISS HOKUSAI / CERT: 12A / DIRECTOR: KEIICHI HARA / SCREENPLAY: MIHO MARUO / STARRING: ANNE WATANABE, SHION SHIMIZU, YUTAKA MATSUSHIGE / RELEASE DATE: 25TH APRIL

It’s impossible to be any sort of a journalist without having some sort of appreciation of the work of Hunter S Thomson. There have only been a handful of movie adaptations of the man’s work. 1998’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the best example of transferring Thomson’s anarchic writing style and wild metaphor onto the screen.

For those who haven’t had the pleasure, Hunter S Thomson was an American journalist whose savage and chaotic approach inspired a generation of reporters, columnists and writers. Thomson pioneered the idea of the journalist as ‘part of the story’, rather than as an observer. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is perhaps his best-known work, but perhaps the hardest to transfer onto the screen. Luckily, legendary director Terry Gilliam stepped up to the challenge to give us this journey into the dark heart of the American psyche, such as it was in the late 70’s.

Johnny Depp turns in a remarkable performance as the balding journalist, and Benicio del Toro’s transformation into the monstrous man known as Dr. Gonzo is nothing short of remarkable. The pair wheel their way through Las Vegas on a variety of drugs, moral stances and general craziness, navigating the choppy waters of an America waking up from the peace and love of the 1960s. The plot of the movie is only very loosely based on the book, with the movie’s focus being far more on a drug-addlled binge through Las Vegas. However, Gilliam captures the essence of the original work perfectly.

Sadly there is nothing terribly remarkable about this new DVD and Blu-Ray release. The print is as good as always has been but there aren’t any extras worth mentioning. However, this new release does keep a rather fine movie still in print and easily accessible. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is essential viewing; even if you aren’t a fan of drug culture or don’t have any interest Terry Gilliam’s directing style or Thomson’s polemic, it’s still a very, very fine movie.

Great film, though we wish the new release came with more interesting extras.

FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS (1998) / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: TERRY GILLIAM / SCREENPLAY: TERRY GILLIAM, TONY GRISONI, ALEX COX, TOD DAVIES / STARRING: JOHNNY DEPP, BENICIO DEL TORO, ELLEN BARKIN, TOBEY MAGUIRE, GARY BUSEYCHRISTINA RICCI, CAMERON DIAZ / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Joe Turner is an analyst for the CIA. He reads published texts from around the world and examines them for coded messages. He recently discovered an anomaly that he flagged to CIA headquarters, and he is awaiting their response. But when Joe goes for lunch, and takes the back-door shortcut to avoid getting caught in the rain, a team of assassins walk through the front door and slaughter everyone in the building. When Joe returns to find everybody dead, and alerts his superiors at the CIA’s New York headquarters, his world crashes down around him. A rendezvous to bring Joe to safety turns out to be a trap and suddenly he is a hunted man with a skilled assassin (Max von Sydow) on his tail. Joe needs a place to stay while he works out what is going on and he forces Kathy Hale (Faye Dunaway) – a young woman he encounters in a sporting goods store – to take him back to her apartment, where she becomes his unlikely prisoner. But Joe is running out of time, the killers are closing in, and unless he can win over Kathy’s trust, Joe Turner (codename: Condor) is going to die.

The 1970s were a great decade for conspiracy thrillers and Three Days of the Condor is one of the best, sitting somewhere between the entertaining ludicrousness of The Parallax View (which was scribed by one of Condor’s co-writers, Lorenzo Semple Jr.) and the noirish paranoia-with-a-message of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation. It’s a slick and good-looking exercise in suspense filmmaking, which also pulls off the genius trick of being completely plausible while you watch it and then unravelling rapidly as soon as you think about it afterwards (but the same can be said of many of Hitchcock’s movies.) Robert Redford, at the peak of his career, plays the dishevelled hero with his usual boyish charm and Faye Dunaway is her trademark ice-maiden cool, although the romantic relationship that develops between their two characters (which, let’s face it, was inevitable) is unconvincing and feels clumsily tacked on. Max Von Sydow, as the assassin, plays the part with a wry twinkle in his eye, and there’s terrific support from Cliff Robertson and John Houseman as the men at the top of the network who Joe Turner should – or maybe not? – trust to bring him home. As is usual with ‘70s thrillers, everything is wrapped up with an unnecessarily convoluted political explanation that leaves more questions than answers but so what if the story doesn’t make much sense? Somehow, screenwriters Lorenzo Semple Jr. and David Rayfiel made a silk purse out of James Grady’s sow’s ear of a source novel and, on top of that, this is one of the few films that opens with a Dino De Laurentiis credit that feels like a movie made for grown-ups.

There are only two extras on the disc but they’re both good ones – an overview of the film by Sheldon Hall and an episode of The Directors devoted to (Condor director) Sydney Pollack’s career. There is also a booklet featuring a new essay on the film, an interview with Pollack, and some very nice archival images. All in all, this is another terrific Blu-ray from Eureka! Masters of Cinema: Three Days of the Condor has never looked or sounded so good.

Analysis Says: Very highly recommended.

THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR (1975) / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: SYDNEY POLLACK / SCREENPLAY: DAVID RAYFIEL, LORENZO SEMPLE JR. / STARRING: ROBERT REDFORD, FAYE DUNAWAY, CLIFF ROBERTSON, MAX VON SYDOW / RELEASE DATE: APRIL 11TH

Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich. Malkovich Malkovich, Malkovich. Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich. Malkovich? John Malkovich!

Being John Malkovich, to be exact, surrealist masterpiece and showcase for John Malkovich, gamely played by John Malkovich (John Malkovich). In the movie, a sad puppeteer (John Cusack), his work girlfriend (Katherine Keener) and his wife (Cameron Diaz) discover a magic portal to the inside of actor John Malkovich’s mind, allowing them to take control and be Malkovich themselves. Curiously, they do not spend the whole time reading the phone book to each other, as most of us would do if suddenly given control of John Malkovich’s body and voice, but instead battle for supremacy within – completely ruining it for themselves and everyone else. That time he was possessed by hipsters presumably being an explanation for why he (or who) signed up for turds like Jonah Hex and RED 2, then.

Like John Malkovich, Being John Malkovich has aged well, with the main man retaining such a sense of cult stardom that it remains as relevant as ever. Even better, it’s a good John Cusack performance in a day and age where the Grosse Point Blank star isn’t as cool as he used to be (the odd gem aside) and Cameron Diaz doesn’t do nearly enough (even if this is one of the works which earned her the reputation and running joke of being an actress who gets tied up all the time). Needless to say, it’s immaculately acted throughout (Charlie Sheen!) It’s creepy, weird and, like much of director Spike Jonze and writer Charlie Kaufman’s work, defiantly odd. Not bad, for a directorial feature debut. Such a nightmarish handle on its imagery (Malkovich being confronted by a world of Malkoviches sticks in the memory, hard) combined with a wry surrealism make the film ripe for repeat viewing, even if (like the rest of Universal’s recent slate of re-releases) the DVD comes with nothing new in terms of extras or commentaries.

There’s only one John Malkovich and there’s only one Being John Malkovich. Malkovich!

BEING JOHN MALKOVICH (1999) / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: SPIKE JONZE / SCREENPLAY: CHARLIE KAUFMAN / STARRING: JOHN CUSACK, CAMERON DIAZ, KATHERINE KEENER, JOHN MALKOVICH / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Flintstones! It’s the live action Flintstones! And apparently popular enough to warrant a prequel to their 1994 debut, too. Not enough to ensure the return of John Goodman or Rick Moranis though. Director Brian Levant does return, going even further back in history to prequel territory, to tell the tale of how Fred and Barney came to meet their lovely lady wives.

Going younger and cheaper gets us Mark Addy (yes, Robert Baratheon) as Fred and Stephen ‘the craziest’ Baldwin as Barney. Elizabeth Perkins and Rosie O’ Donnell are also out the proverbial window, replaced by Third Rock From the Sun’s Kristen Johnston and Jane Krakowski as Wilma and Betty. The film’s cast is essentially just an extended ‘poor man’s version of…’ joke, complete with Thomas Gibson playing the villain, a knock-off of Kyle MacLachlan’s Cliff Vandercave, so obvious that one wonders whether they were at some point actually meant to be the same character. Elizabeth Taylor is back though, playing that one note she did in the first Flintstones over and over again.

The plot, then, which sees Fred and Barney head on a trip to the titular Rock Vegas, where Fred hopes to court his Wilma(aaaa). Complicating matters is playboy Chip Rockerfeller (Gibson), who also has designs on the girl with the pearl necklace. This one also sees the introduction of alien Gazoo (Alan Cumming), both a help and hindrance to Fred’s cause, and either the funniest or most irritating thing in the movie, depending on one’s tolerance for such things.

Like the previous Flintstones movie, Viva Rock Vegas isn’t particularly well remembered – this one even less so due to its lack of John Goodman and substitution of the mighty Rick Moranis, with a Baldwin brother that isn’t even Alec (who, to be fair, would make a terrible Barney). And, like The Flintstones, there’s a narrative dead weight in that – just as we knew Fred and Barney would remain steadfast friends by the end – we’re all fully aware that Fred and Wilma are ‘Meant to Be’.

Still, the main cast give it their all, particularly Addy and Johnston as the unlikely Fred and Wilma. Like the previous film, it looks the part, visually inventive and packed with plenty of background humour. To those who enjoyed The Flintstones, it’s more of the same – and ditto for those who hated it. Yabba dabba sure, why not.

THE FLINTSTONES IN VIVA ROCK VEGAS (2000) / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: BRIAN LEVANT / SCREENPLAY: DEBORAH KAPLAN, HARRY ELFONT, JIM CASH, JACK EPPS JR. / STARRING: MARK ADDY, STEPHEN BALDWIN, KRISTEN JOHNSTON, JANE KRAKOWSKI, THOMAS GIBSON, ALAN CUMMING / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW