HT Staff

DVD: Elf—New Line
Video: 5
Audio: 5
Extras: 5
Elf is 10 feet tall. Thoroughly entertaining, Will Ferrell's breakout film is now available on two DVDs that are fun, pure and simple. Ferrell plays Buddy, who accidentally ends up in Santa's North Pole Workshop and is raised by the elves, never being told he's really human. . .even though he's 3 feet taller than everyone else. Yearning to find his real father, Buddy heads to New York to do so.

DVD: Be Cool:
I am a big Get Shorty fan. The dialogue, the acting, and the plot all just exude a coolness that is never struggled for, just achieved. The thought of a sequel seemed a little odd, but knowing that it is based on the Elmore Leonard sequel novel, I had high hopes. The end result was admittedly funny but nowhere near the quality of the original. The story takes place a few years after Get Shorty, and Chili Palmer is deciding to get out of the movie business. After a friend gets murdered, he decides to get into the music business instead. Far too many jokes are rehashed, but that in itself isn't the problem. Whereas the original was an effortless cool, this movie tries too hard to be cool—and rarely succeeds. Far too much time is spent on the (admittedly excellent) secondary characters, with Chili himself just kind of showing up to drive the plot along. The effect, though, highlights two of the best aspects of this movie: the Rock and André 3000. These two absolutely steal the movie, and this disc is worth a rental just for them. There are many musician cameos, but, unlike in Get Shorty, where actor cameos are natural (as in, they can act), the musician cameos are often awkward and distracting.

DVD: Soul Plane Mile-High Edition—MGM/UA
Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 3
If the Zucker brothers had made Airplane with bling, this comedy about the maiden voyage of a black-owned airline might have been the result. But don't confuse Soul Plane with that 1980 classic. While some of the visual jokes score, most of the humor is of the raunchy, make-you-wince variety. Nonetheless, the cast members, including Snoop Dogg, Method Man, Kevin Hart, and Tom Arnold as the token white guy, all got game; as a result, the film reaches a steady cruising altitude, even if it doesn't quite earn its wings.

How much power do you need? Many movie lovers believe that 200 watts per channel gives you all the dynamic headroom you need for the most demanding soundtracks.