ShareThis(TARAS BULBA. 1962. PG-13. MGM. $19.98)Movies like "Taras Bulba" are time capsules -- certainly not of 16th century Ukraine (the movie's setting), but of late '50s-early '60s Hollywood, the heyday of the studio costume epic. When he made this picture, director J. Lee Thompson was riding high: His previous two movies were "The Guns of Navarone" and "Cape Fear."Those films are probably the peak of his career -- "Taras Bulba" isn't in their league. But it's enjoyable kitsch, with lots of impressive battle scenes and Yul Brynner and Tony Curtis hamming it up as a Cossack warlord and his son. The story is one of conflicts and betrayals resulting from Taras' alliance with Poland to drive out the Turks. There is also, of course, a soap opera element: Taras' son angers Dad by falling for a Polish woman (Christine Kaufmann).The film is based on a story by Nikolai Gogol, but we're many steps away from high literature here, since the screenplay includes lines such as: "There is only one way to keep faith with a Pole: Put your faith in your sword and the sword in the Pole." No major extra features on this disc. "Taras Bulba" is one of three Brynner epics now appearing for the first time on DVD: the others are "Solomon and Sheba" (1959) and "Kings of the Sun" (1963). -- WALTER ADDIEGO(JE CROIS QUE JE L'AIME. 2007. NOT RATED. MONGREL MEDIA. $34.50)The paucity of European titles in the United States is a source of great frustration. Not only do many of the best films of the best actors and actresses never find release, but they almost never come to DVD, and the foreign DVDs usually don't have subtitles.Major award-winning, internationally famous stars (Nathalie Baye, for one example) will have 75 percent of their work unavailable in any form to American viewers. Therefore finding this film, in the American DVD format, with English subtitles, seems like something of a triumph.It's the first of two films that Sandrine Bonnaire made in 2007, a somewhat lead-footed American-style romantic comedy, with Bonnaire as a public-installations ceramic artist and Vincent Lindon as a big-shot executive who sees her and decides, "Je crois que je l'aime" (I think I love her).The comic setups are heavy-handed, enough to keep the film from ever finding release in America, but the actors are charming. Lindon is convincing as a man in the grip of a growing obsession, and Bonnaire seems believably worthy of it. For Bonnaire fans, the chief interest of the film (besides the fact that she's more beautiful at 40 than she was at 25) is that it showcases an actress known for the warmth of her portrayals in a more direct, no-nonsense, caustic role. The movie is available only at Amazon.ca, Amazon's Canadian outlet. -- MICK LASALLE(THE CATHERINE TATE SHOW: SERIES 2. 2006. NOT RATED. KULTUR WHITE STAR. $29.99)Until recently, the only way for an American to see Catherine Tate was to fly on Virgin Atlantic and access her shows as part of the in-flight entertainment. Finally last year, the BBC released her series' first season, and now the second season has come out on DVD. There are six episodes, clocking in at a generous three hours.The shows consist entirely of skits, in which Tate plays a series of characters -- each with a distinct look and most requiring extensive makeup. Some of the skits are pretty hysterical, such as D.I. Angie Barker, a working mother/forensics specialist who shows up at homicide scenes with her two kids. There's the Tactless Woman, who is always accidentally saying offensive things to her party guests, and Derek Faye, the obviously gay bachelor who becomes horribly offended when people assume he's gay.Then there's Sheila, the impeccably dressed, high-class, nitpicking perfectionist who is always correcting people and complaining about her environments -- even though she can't stop passing wind in explosive ways. The comic invention at work here is generous and fertile, with enough in a half-hour show to supply most comedians with two hours worth of material. With Tate it just keeps coming and coming. Indeed, any description can only hint at this series' contents: There are approximately 75 skits contained on this disc alone. -- MICK LASALLE(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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