UNFAITHFULLY YOURS

1948, Not Rated

There was a time when Preston Sturges was the best-known filmmaker in the world. A triple-threat (producer/writer/director) of rare dexterity, his screwball mix of good-natured satire and urbane, often eccentric wit was a wholly unique presence in 1940s Hollywood. If Unfaithfully Yours marked the end of his singular reign, it also stands as his most personal film. Sir Alfred De Carter (Rex Harrison, essentially standing in for the director) is a famous master conductor consumed with jealousy: He thinks his young wife (Linda Darnell) is cheating on him. Besides a trio of well-executed dream sequences in which a caustic-tongued Alfred plots his revenge, not much happens. What we do get is a psychologically incisive portrait of a man/artist whose mind proves corrosive. Unfaithfully Yours' happy ending ultimately seems as misleading as the hostility that precludes it. The best extra of this plush Criterion offering is an audio commentary by a trio of Sturges' scholars who lend insight into one of our truly distinctive film talents. (Jason Gargano) Grade: B+

THE CROW: WICKED PRAYER

THE CROW: WICKED PRAYER (BUENA VISTA)

2005, Rated R

The fourth installment (and second straight-to-video offering) in The Crow series features Edward Furlong as Jimmy Cuervo, the soon-to-be wronged soul that The Crow resurrects long enough to exact suitably violent revenge upon the gothic evil sadists who exist only in The Crow universe. Furlong is a curious choice to step into the forefront of this dark comic book role. He lacks the physical presence of previous Crows, but he capably fits the delinquent, white-trash romantic notions Wicked Prayer haphazardly outlines. That is not meant to sound like an insult, since the nominal storyline links Cuervo and the satanic biker-gang leader Luc Crash (David Boreanaz) on one side of the axis opposite the Southwestern Native American mysticism of the lovely Lily (Emmanuelle Chriqui) and her father (Danny Trejo). The ritualistic death and mutilation of Cuervo and Lily at the hands of Crash call upon the power of The Crow to set things right. Too bad there's no symbolic figure to avenge audiences who must endure the hammy theatrics of Boreanaz and an absurd cameo by Dennis Hopper. (tt clinkscales) Grade: D

PLATFORM

PLATFORM (NEW YORKER VIDEO)

2000, Not Rated

Director Jia Zhang-ke's Platform is an intelligent, engaging and often frustrating film set in late-1970s China, a transition period which saw the country slowly change with the influx of Western culture and consumer capitalism. Zhang-ke follows a government-sponsored Peasant Culture Group who travels the rural provinces entertaining the citizenry with child-like song-and-dance numbers exalting praises to Mao. The many performers are open to the changes from the West -- Pop music, bellbottom pants, cigarettes -- and everything that they represent. Given the opportunity to stray from their set propaganda pieces, the group sets out to create a new identity, but tradition, familial obligations and adherence to the Party line work against them. Platform resonates like the best of the Italian neo-realist films, revealing everyday joys and frustrations with a startling immediacy. However, in an odd, contrasting move, Zhang-ke keeps his distance from the emotions. His long shots and takes are beautiful and often heart-wrenching metaphors for the characters' lives and situations, but they also slow down the two-and-a-half-hour film to its detriment. (Phil Morehart) Grade: B

GHOSTBUSTERS 1 & 2

GHOSTBUSTERS 1 & 2 (SONY)

1984 and 1989, Rated PG

The slapstick acorn that's Bill Murray -- the same man who grew into the masterful actor at the heart of the Jim Jarmusch drama Broken Flowers -- is in every funny scene in the 1984 action film, Ghostbusters, and its popular 1989 sequel. Released as a two-disc set complete with bonus scrapbook, making-of features and cartoons, the pair offers a welcome flashback to the wisecracking clown and new appreciation for the extraordinary actor Murray has become the past few years. Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson and Harold Ramis are unemployed parapsychologists who create havoc on the streets of New York City as they vanquish ghosts. A farce with special effects no different from an Abbott and Costello comedy of old, Ghostbusters was a comic phenomenon that's grown into something only slapstick-loving kids can appreciate. In the less funny 1989 sequel, the disbanded Ghostbusters regroup to save the world again -- whether they're wanted or not. Still, with Murray currently in cinemas with Broken Flowers, it's valuable to see just how far he's come as an actor. (Steve Ramos) Grade: C-