What’s New

The Broken Hearts Club--A Romantic Comedy (2000). Writer-director Greg Berlanti’s smart debut feature is subtitled a romantic comedy, but in its mainstream style is much more than that--a candid take on the values of WeHo gay culture, where friends can unintentionally be as destructive as they are supportive. Timothy Olyphant heads a hunky ensemble cast that includes TV’s erstwhile Superman, Dean Cain. Columbia: no list price; DVD: $29.95; (CC); R, for language, drug use and some sexual content.

The Contender (2000). An unlikely combination of “The West Wing” and the National Enquirer, this Rod Lurie-written and directed political melodrama about trashy doings in Washington benefits greatly from expert performances by Joan Allen as a beleaguered senator and Gary Oldman as her nemesis. DreamWorks/Universal: no list price; DVD: $26.99; (CC); R, for strong sexual content and language.

The Little Vampire (2000). Jonathan Lipnicki has a serious attack of the cutes as an American boy who befriends a Scottish boy vampire. A fitfully amusing fantasy for the 10-and-under set. With Richard E. Grant, Rollo Weeks. Directed by Uli Edel. New Line/Warner: $19.96; DVD: $24.98; (CC); PG, for some mild peril.

* Meet the Parents (selected theaters). Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro star as prospective son-in-law and father-in-law from hell in one of the most fun mainstream comedies in years, a film that gets its laughs from shrewd casting, and well-timed line readings and gags that are worked out to a remarkable degree. Universal: $22.98; DVD: $26.98; (CC); PG-13, for sexual content, drug references and language.

Rear Window (1954). James Stewart, as a photographer with a broken leg, is confined to his apartment, where, for entertainment, he spies on his neighbors through open windows during a sweltering New York City summer. Soon he sees what he thinks may have been a murder. With Grace Kelly, Thelma Ritter and Raymond Burr. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Universal: $14.98; DVD: $29.98; (CC); PG.

*

What’s Hot

* Last week’s Top 5 VHS rentals:

1. “What Lies Beneath” (2000). A suspense thriller with a brisk succession of bump-in-the-dark moments shoe-horned into an old-fashioned dark-and-stormy-night ghost story. Spooky with a polished kind of creepiness added by director Robert Zemeckis, it nevertheless feels more planned than passionate, scary at points but unconvincing overall. Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer star. PG-13, for terror/violence, sensuality and brief language.

2. “Bring It On” (2000). A smart and sassy high school movie that’s fun for all ages, starring Kirsten Dunst as the captain of a cheerleading team at an affluent San Diego-area high school that has won the national cheerleading competition five years in a row. To her chagrin, she discovers that their current hip-hop routine was ripped off by her predecessor from a Compton high school. PG-13, for sex-related material and language.

3. “The Watcher” (2000). A meticulously crafted but resolutely routine serial-killer suspense thriller that’s neither very suspenseful nor particularly thrilling. James Spader is a burned-out FBI agent all but destroyed by trying to nab Keanu Reeves’ elusive strangler, and Marisa Tomei is Spader’s empathetic therapist. It’s one of those you’ve-seen-it-all-before movies. R for violence and language.

4. “Bless the Child” (2000). It opens strongly, with Kim Basinger as a nurse in a New York hospital who suddenly finds herself, on Christmas Eve, with her drug-addicted sister’s newborn abandoned child. But its credibility as a supernatural thriller erodes quickly, and the film lapses into an exercise in foolishness. R, for violence, drug content and brief language.

5. “Get Carter” (2000). Sylvester Stallone is well cast as an underworld enforcer who returns home to Seattle to probe his younger brother’s supposedly accidental death. Stallone is suitably world-weary and reflective, but the filmmakers keep making him knock people around to pump up the action. R, for violence, language, some sexuality and drug content.

* Last week’s Top 5 DVD rentals:

1. “The Watcher”

2. “What Lies Beneath”

3. “Bring It On”

4. “Get Carter”

5. “Bless the Child”

*

Last week’s Top 5 VHS sellers:

1. “Dinosaur” (2000). This computer-animated tale of a brave orphaned iguanadon is a technical amazement that points computer-generated animation toward the brightest of futures but is also cartoonish in the worst way, the prisoner of pedestrian plot points and childish, too-cute dialogue. PG for intense images.

2. “The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Thomas Harris’ harrowing, mesmerizing book concerned an institutionalized psychopath who is used to identify a serial killer. In a fine adaptation, director Jonathan Demme and screenwriter Ted Tally have focused on a duel of wits and wills between Jodie Foster’s young FBI trainee and that paradigm of evil, Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins). Although Demme does not dwell on the gore, it’s definitely there, making it a film not for the faint of heart. R.

3. “Left Behind” (2000). Kirk Cameron stars.

4. “Digimon: The Movie” (2000). The digital monsters of TV take to the big screen with the requisite noise and product promotion. Screenplay by Jeff Nimoy and Bob Bucholz. G.

5. “Erin Brockovich” (2001). Julia Roberts and Albert Finney star.

* Last week’s Top 5 DVD sellers:

1. “The Watcher”

2. “Bring It On”

3. “What Lies Beneath” (2000).

4. “Gladiator” (2000). Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix and Connie Nielson star.

5. “Dinosaur”

*

What’s Coming

Tuesday: “Almost Famous,” “The Bridge,” “The Crew,” “The Legend of Drunken Master,” “The Sixth Day,” “Urbania” and “Wonder Boys.”

March 20: “Dancer in the Dark,” “Lucky Numbers,” “Remember the Titans,” “The Tao of Steve” and “Turn It Up.”

March 27: “Charlie’s Angels,” “Girlfight,” “Red Planet,” “Rugrats in Paris: The Movie” and “Once in the Life.”

April 3: “Legend of Bagger Vance,” “The Million Dollar Hotel” and “102 Dalmatians.”

April 10: “Bounce,” “Men of Honor” and “What’s Cooking.”

April 17: “Bamboozled,” “Billy Elliot,” “The Ladies Man,” “Space Cowboys,” “Tigerland” and “The Yards.”

April 24: “Finding Forrester,” “Just Looking,” “Little Nicky” and “One Day in September.”

May 1: “All the Pretty Horses,” “The Emperor’s New Groove” and “Miss Congeniality.”

May 22: “Requiem for a Dream.”

May 29: “Traffic.”

June 26: “Unbreakable.”

Commentary by Times critics.

Rental video charts provided by VSDA

VidTrac, sales charts by VideoScan Inc.