Old-fashioned comedy and sentiment lace a number of these fairly recent movies that are new to DVD, but the best by far is the film that earned Cher her Oscar.
"Moonstruck: Deluxe Edition" (MGM, 1987, PG, $19.94). True, this is yet another DVD reissue, but having an opportunity to watch this film again was a real treat, so I won't complain.
Cher stars as a widow who accepts a proposal from settled-in Danny Aiello. Stability, she reasons, is what she needs. But when she meets his brother, Nicolas Cage, who is about as unstable as they come, sparks fly . . . in more ways than one. She does her darndest to resist Cage, but let's face it, she's, well, "Moonstruck."
An old-fashioned romantic comedy of the kind that is practically extinct today, warm and funny, with bright and witty dialogue, and a bevy of riotous supporting characters. Well-deserved Oscars went to Cher, Olympia Dukakis (as Cher's mother) and screenwriter John Patrick Shanley.
Extras: Widescreen, audio commentary (Cher, director Norman Jewison, writer John Patrick Shanley; this is the same commentary that was on the previous DVD), making-of featurettes, language and subtitle options (English, French, Spanish), chapters; recipe cards.
"Mrs. Henderson Presents" (Weinsein/Pathe, 2005; R for nudity, language, violence, sex; $28.95). Judi Dench earned an Oscar nomination for her performance as a real-life widow in pre-World War II London who has too much money and time on her hands.
She buys an abandoned theater and hires a showman (Bob Hoskins) to bring in the public, which he does with a vaudeville-style revue. But then too many copycat shows around London cause ticket sales to falter. So Mrs. Henderson suggests having the lovely ladies in the cast perform in the buff — even after censors insist that the women stand perfectly still onstage.
The film boasts great production values and fine performances, but the script is hit and miss. Despite the R-rated nudity there is a simple innocence surrounding most of this, but the film is just never as inspired as it would like to be.
Extras: Widescreen, audio commentary (director Stephen Frears), making-of featurette, subtitle options (English, Spanish), chapters.
"Event Horizon: Special Collector's Edition" (Paramount, 1997; R for violence, language, nudity; $19.99, two discs). An all-star cast — Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Kathleen Quinlan, Joley Richardson — leads this exercise in outer-space gore, which brings to mind "Alien," "Hellraiser," "Stargate" and other earlier films.
A space rescue team in 2047 is ordered to recapture a missing time machine, but all is not as it seems, of course, and one-by-one the team is killed off in spectacularly violent ways. For splatter fans only.
Why this was deemed worthy of a two-disc reissue is beyond me.
Extras: Widescreen, audio commentary (director Paul W.S. Anderson, producer Jeremy Bolt), making-of featurettes, trailer, language options (English, French), subtitle options (English, Spanish), chapters.
"Meeting Daddy" (Paramount, 2000; R for sex, language; $14.99). This sluggish comedy is pretty much bereft of laughs, as a Jewish writer (Josh Charles) flies to Georgia to meet his Baptist fiancee's (Alexandra Wentworth) bigoted, bickering, manipulative family, led by an eccentric elderly patriarch (Lloyd Bridges in his last film role).
Bridges' real-life son Beau plays one of his sons here, Kristy Swanson is a sexy cousin and Edie McClurg shows up as an unprepared caregiver. Good cast; terrible movie that tries way too hard to be quirky.
Extras: Full frame, optional English subtitles, chapters.
"No Money Down" (Melee, 1997; not rated but R-level sex, nudity, language; $19.99). Don't let star Josh Lucas ("Glory Road") or the familiar supporting cast — Roy Scheider, Teri Garr, Ally Sheedy, Al Franken and Bob Balaban (who also co-produced) — fool you into renting this piece of trash.
The quality is amateurish in a way that most low-budget films surpass these days, as Lucas and a pal mount a real-estate scheme, meeting various stereotypes along the way, all of them equally sleazy.
Extras: Full frame, chapters.
E-mail: hicks@desnews.com