DVD REVIEWS:

 
       
  CRASH (2004): Several stories interweave during two days in Los Angeles involving a collection of inter-related characters: a police detective with a drugged out mother and a thieving younger brother, two car thieves who are constantly theorizing on society and race, the white district attorney and his irritated and pampered wife, a racist white veteran cop (caring for a sick father at home) who disgusts his more idealistic younger partner, a successful Hollywood director and his wife who must deal with the racist cop, a Persian-immigrant father who buys a gun to protect his shop, a Hispanic locksmith and his young daughter who is afraid of bullets, and more. Sounds complicated, and for the first several minutes it appears that way, too. But as you get into the story, it all starts to come together and you're soon totally absorbed in an excellent movie, with fine performance by the entire cast, including Matt Dillon, Sandra Bullock and Don Cheadle.

LORD OF WAR (2005) "There are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation. That's one firearm for every twelve people on the planet. The only question is: How do we arm the other 11?" With that quote, the movie opens and for the next two hours Uri Orlov (Nicolas Cage) tries to do just that. In the 80s in Little Odessa, the Ukrainian immigrant Orlov decides to change his economical life by becoming an arms dealer with his brother Vitaly (Jared Leto). His business of gunrunning and supplying illegal weapons in troubled areas of the planet increases with the end of the Cold War, and Yuri bribes a Russian general to sell most of his arsenal. In doing so, he soon becomes a millionaire and uses his money to seduce the beautiful Ava Fontaine (Bridget Moynahan) and they get married and have a son. The detective, Jack Valentine (Ethan Hawke), chases Yuri and tries to put him in jail, but in the end he understands that Yuri is a necessary evil for the interest of his nation. Lord of War is a very entertaining film, with lots of action, and with another excellent performance by Mr. Cage.