Most critics couldn't get behind Bill Murray's modern retelling of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, finding it too unfocused at times and not nearly wicked enough. Still, if you're a Murray fan, you have to enjoy his deliciously nasty portrayal of the world's meanest TV executive, who has his cathartic moment one cold Christmas night in New York City. The various ghosts lead him on a ghost-town tour of Manhattan, with stops at holidays past, present, and future and a Kumbaya moment when Al Green and Annie Lennox sing "Put a Little Love in Your Heart. " The effects are otherworldly, but one wishes the writing were as sharp as Murray's edgy portrayal. -Marshall Fine.

Ethan Hawke, fresh faced and full of determination, tackles the icy wilds and rowdy boom towns of Alaska in Disney's 1991 adaptation of Jack London's turn-of-the-century gold rush classic. Though somewhat tamed for young audiences, the story of a city kid who befriends a feral half-wolf/half-dog orphan while learning to survive the dangers of nature and man has its share of peril and rousing scenes of wilderness adventure. But the humans are upstaged by both the animals (the standoff between White Fang and a wild brown bear is a highlight) and the Alaskan landscape, from the snow-covered mountains and frozen lakes of winter to the rich green forests and whitecap rivers of summer. The scenes of dogfights and wild wolves hunting game are carefully shot to avoid bloodshed (the opening disclaimer takes pains to remind viewers that all such scenes have been simulated), but they may still be too intense for young children. Recommended for 9 and up. -Sean Axmaker.

The Unauthorized Star Wars Story is everything you'd expect an unauthorized video to be: fun and full of gossip. In 1977, Star Wars took the world by surprise and this documentary traces its history (Lucas had trouble obtaining funding for "the big sci-fi-space-adventure-Flash-Gordon thing," as it was called), interviews the actors, and looks at the cultish fandom that sprang up around the movie (Japanese fans traveled to the U. S. on Star Wars tours merely to see the film before it opened in their own country). The dish is plentiful and entertaining: Carrie Fisher hated Princess Leia's hair, pranksters would paste pictures of naked women in R2D2's costume, the actors thought the film was "rubbish" as they were making it. The many interview clips include discussions with Charles Lippincott, former vice president of Lucasfilm; Anthony Daniels, who played C3PO; Harrison Ford; Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca; Kenny Baker, better known as R2D2; Carrie Fisher; Mark Hamill; Rick McCallum, producer of The Phantom Menace; and George Lucas. Occasionally the documentary gives a bit too much information (do we really need to see George Lucas's hometown and listen to his neighbors?), but no matter-it doesn't detract from the overall voyeuristic nature of the video. The later films are touched on (Samuel L. Jackson is interviewed), but the concentration is on the original, Episode IV: A New Hope. Whether you're a casual fan or one of the devoted who wait all night in line for tickets to the next installment, The Unauthorized Star Wars Story is an interesting, fun, behind-the-scenes look at one the best-loved films of all time. [+]

Winner of five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Actor, and Screenplay, Kramer vs. Kramer remains as powerfully moving today as it was when released in 1979, simply because its drama will remain relevant for couples of any generation. Adapted by director Robert Benton from the novel by Avery Corman, this is perhaps the finest, most evenly balanced film ever made about the failure of marriage and the tumultuous shift of parental roles. It begins when Joanna Kramer (Meryl Streep) bluntly informs her husband Ted (Dustin Hoffman) that she's leaving him, just as his advertising career is advancing and demanding most of his waking hours. Self-involvement is just one of the film's underlying themes, along with the search for identity that prompts Joanna to leave Ted with their first-grade son (Justin Henry), who now finds himself living with a workaholic parent he barely knows. Juggling his domestic challenge with professional deadlines, Ted is further pressured when his wife files for custody of their son. This legal battle forms the dramatic spine of the film, but its power is derived from Benton's flawlessly observant script and the superlative performances of his entire cast. Because Benton refuses to assign blame and deals fairly with both sides of a devastating dilemma, the film arrives at equal levels of pain, growth, and integrity under emotionally stressful circumstances. That gives virtually every scene the unmistakable ring of truth-a quality of dramatic honestly that makes Kramer vs. Kramer not merely a classic tearjerker, but one of the finest American dramas of its decade. [+]

Richard Gere is pretty convincing as a severe manic-depressive whose episodes of euphoria sometimes find him dancing on a two-by-four far above the street or climbing onstage during a symphony performance to "conduct" the orchestra. When the pendulum swings the other way, he is practically catatonic. As a character study, this film by Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) has its truly compelling moments, but Mr. Jones isn't just a character study. Inexplicably, Figgis ushers in a preposterous romance between this poor fellow and his psychiatrist (Lena Olin), a relationship that is supposed to raise interesting ethical and dramatic issues. All it does is make one wonder what the devil the doctor is thinking of, and why Figgis felt it necessary to go down this lose-lose path. With Delroy Lindo in a nice part as a sympathetic construction worker who tries to help Gere's character. -Tom Keogh.