Directed by Michael Almereyda Starring Alison Elliott, Jared Harris, Christopher Walken, Lois Smith
Elliott and Harris play Nora and Jim, an alcoholic New York couple who decide to change their lifestyle by taking a holiday in her native Connemara. Nora is barely off the plane at Shannon when she's downing a pint of Guinness - "shur, it's like mother's milk to me" - and recalling how she was "shipped off to the States" when she was 16 to have an abortion.
Her crazy uncle (Walken) explains that the corpse laid out on the ping-pong table in the basement is an ancient Druid witch buried in the nearby bog 2,000 years ago.
Going directly to video here, this melange of horror hokum and stageOirishness is a hoot up to the halfway point when it becomes merely a bore.
Deep Blue Sea
Directed by Renny Harlin Starring Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows, Samuel L. Jackson, L.L. Cool J
This formulaic action yarn ostensibly pivots on a project to derive a cure for degenerative diseases by drawing on protein from the brains of Mako sharks. It soon becomes clear that director Harlin is more concerned with the elaborate setpieces and effects as the disparate characters on the enterprise are gobbled up as shark meat. Though mostly animatronic, the sharks are rather more convincing than the humans.
Inspector Gadget
Directed by David Kellogg Starring Matthew Broderick, Rupert Everett, Joely Fisher
Based on a cartoon character, this effects-driven, live-action romp features Broderick as a rather naive and inept security guard whose dreams of being the world's greatest police officer seem dashed - until he is supplied with grafted-on gizmos which transform him into the crime-busting Inspector Gadget - and will entertain undemanding younger viewers.