The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page 99

14 Wee'kind Friday, September 8.c20dt Trie' ihdianaftolfs Star Vww.ihdy'sy.co'm 1 ll excellent, good, fair, poor Special editions make characteristically eye-catching Paul Verhoeven statement i iii.ijiiiiami.ui ii 1 I i By Terry Lawson Knighl Ridder Newspapers The packaging for the new Se-cial Limited Edition: Total Recall (Artisan, $26.98) and the special edition of 1992's Basic Instinct (Artisan, $26.98) is definitely eye-catching. Recall comes a red tin, complete with craters, designed to resemble Mars, while Instinct is served up in a blue-frosted see-through slipcase that contains what appears to be an ice pick but is actually a nonlethal pen. Creative as these packages may be, they're not exactly practical; Mars is difficult to get in and out of, while both the Instinct disc and the ice pick tend to fall out each time the case is opened. But then Paul Verhoeven. who directed both films, has always favored style over content, although this pair of films, his most popular, are also his most lucid.

Instinct is also his second-most lurid (after Showgirls), from that now-famous eye- and leg-opener from Sharon Stone to the quasi-rape of Jeanne Tripplehorn, playing the shrink and lover of the self-destructive detective (Michael Douglas). The new edition, remastered for wide screen and remixed into Dolby Surround, includes commentary from Verhoeven and cinematographer Jan de Bont. There's also a commentary from post-feminist theorist-provocateur Camille Paglia, who defends the film; a woman with an ice pick is nothing if not empowered. Also included are the eight extended scenes, totaling about a minute, that had to be deleted to obtain the rating. Verhoeven tapped Stone for In-stinct on the basis of her impressive he called It "diabolical" performance in 1990's Total Recall playing if jar I Submitted Photo Sharon Stone plays a novelist and murder suspect who draws a police detective into a maze of mind games in the psychological thriller Basic Instinct.

FSH KIDS Baby Songs Silly Songs. Ten songs with a mix of value and silly humor are featured in this video. For children ages 2-6. Anchor Bay, 2001, $12.98, 30 min. No MPAA rating.

COIYTINC TUESDAY Barbie in the Nutcracker (VHS) The Best of I Love Lucy (10 episodes) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Dead Sexy Fiddler on the Roof (DVD) Heartbreakers The Mummy Returns Possessed Prancer (DVD) The Terminator (DVD) White River Oct. 9 Bridget Jones's Diary The Godfather Collection (5-disc DVD of The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, The Godfather Part III) Goldwyn Journey of Man (DVD) One Night at McCool's Places in the Heart (DVD) Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (DVD) When a Stranger Calls (DVD) Oct. 16 Angel Eyes Cats Dogs The Ruling Class (DVD) Star Wars: Episode The Phantom Menace Town Country TOP FIVE RENTALS Video 1. Exit Wounds, Warner 2. Hannibal, MGM 3.

Memento, Columbia Tri-Star 4. Joe Dirt, Columbia Tri-Star 5. 15 Minutes, New Line CLIP AND RENT Take this reminder list to the video store to help select new releases. Along Came a Spider Amores Perros Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles Dark Days Driven Kingdom Come A Knight's Tale The Luzhin Defence Someone Like You Spy Kids StartuB.corrK vl in the manipulative "wife" of Arnold Schwarzenegger, a 21st-century everyday Joe who has vivid dreams of life on Mars. They turn out to be subconscious memories that refused to be erased when he was mind-fogged and banished to Earth for taking part in a rebellion against a dictator, played by Ronny Cox.

The second half of the film, which returns angry Ahnuld to the red planet, is phenomenal -looking even a decade later (it won an Oscar for visual effects). While Verhoeven's taste can be debated, his skillfulness as a filmmaker cannot. Along with Rolxy cop. Total Recall makes a case for him as the best and most intelligent action director of the era. The real bonuses of the new edition are the original sketches Verhoeven made in preparation for the film, along with the storyboards and the production art.

No wonder this is such a good-looking, fast-moving film: Like the Hitchcock films Verhoeven most admires, it was basically completed before the cameras ever rolled. 'Irma' is back Compared with Basic Instinct, Billy Wilder's adaptation of the Broadway musical farce Irma la Douce (MGM, $19.98) seems tame although, when released in 1963, it was considered extremely risque. Wilder favorite Jack Lemmon plays the French gendarme whose crush on proud prostitute Irma (Shirley Mac-Laine in a role originally intended for Liz Taylor) gets him kicked off the force. To stay close to her. he becomes a mec i.e., pimp and eventually acquires Irma; after that, things get truly, comically complicated.

Sadly. Wilder contributes no audio commentary. The DVD does offer the film in wide screen for the first time, though the soundtrack remains in REWIND Bonnie Britton from the Nazis by the head of a Catholic school who gives them new identities. Persecution for religious beliefs or racial background is a timeless subject as relevant today as it was 60 years ago. Billy Elliott (, 111 minutes.

2000). Language keeps this from getting a more family-friendly rating. Billy is an 1 1-year-old whose father works in the mines In a British town in the 1980s. While his macho father wants him to take boxing lessons, Billy discovers that he has a talent for ballet. Father and son finally find that the bond between them can't be broken by a clash of gloves and that movie, check the reviews dn the mono, much to the detriment of Andre Previn's hip, Oscar-winning score.

Racing film enhanced There are plenty of extras, more than an hour's worth, on the DVD edition of this spring's racing drama Driven (Warner Among them are a number of out-takes annotated by Sylvester Stallone himself, obviously having a good time recalling scenes that aren't in the finished film, mostly involving him. He has the Paul Newman mentor role in this story of a gifted rookie CART driver (Kip Pardue) who can't get his head in the place to win the big one. The big one Just happens to be the Grand Prix on Detroit's Belle Isle, where the climax was filmed last year while the actual race was taking place. The DVD's main attraction for locals will be The Mr iking of "Driven, one of the two documentaries included, which shows the preparations for filming during the event; the other documentary shows how real racing footage and special effects were blended for the track scenes. It's a weekend filled with international flavor antique violin that winds up on the auction block.

Its journey from the 1600s. when it was handcrafted, is told in a series of vignettes interspersed with scenes Involving the present-day antiquities expert (Samuel L. Jackson) who is trying to establish its authenticity as the famous Red Violin. The Instrument's unusual color is explained in the film. Blooniington native Joshua Bell supplies the voice for the violin, and John Corigliano provides a stirring score.

The cinematography is beautiful, but the vignettes are not always as compelling as they might have been. Contact Bonnie Britton at 1-317-444-6258 or via e-mail at bonnie.brit1onwindystar.com aybe you're not a fan of Formula One racing, which takes its many flags to the track this weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speed way, But how about injecting some international flavor into your movie viewing? Chocolat, Life Is Beautiful and Blue are all worth seeing, but here are several foreign flicks that you might want to check out: Au Revoir les Enfants PG, 104 minutes, 1987). Director Louis Malle's film, set during the occupation of France In the 1940s, is a coming-of-age tale that is simple, straightforward, poignant and intimate. Three Jewish boys are hidden IndyStar-wm: Before you rent or buy tutus. A good coming-of-age, father-son story.

The Sweet Hereafter (, no minutes, 1996). An entire town mourns and conflicts arise after a school -bus crash in a small town in British Columbia claims the lives of more than a dozen students. Ian I lolm plays a money-hungry lawyer who arrives to persuade the townsfolk to file a class-action suit and uncovers disturbing Information about some of the residents during his investigation. He must also try to heal his relationship with his daughter, who has fallen into the clutches of drugs. The Red Violin (4.

131 minutes, 1998). Austria, England, China and Canada figure in this story of an Entertainment channel: Vs..