Video Picks Archive

October 24, 2001
This Week's Video Picks
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Reviews by Evelyn Gildrie-Voyles <evy@filmhead.com>

This week my picks are Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien (With a Friend Like Harry...) (2000 - ) and Heathers (1989 - ).

There's a children song that goes "Some kind of help is the kind of help that helping's all about and some kind of help is the kind of help that you can do without." This week's video picks illustrate the point perfectly.

With a Friend Like Harry is subtle and creepy. It has moments both of dark comedy, sweetness, and suspense as an old high school acquaintance, Harry (Sergi Lopex), helps Michel Pape (Lucas Laurent) by killing off the people who are preventing Michel from writing. It doesn't matter that Michel doesn't really want to be a writer or that he is a quiet non-violent man. Harry decides that he knows what is best and will stop at nothing to achieve it.
Full review from June 28, 2001

Heathers is not subtle. It is loud, obnoxious, and hysterical. If you have not seen it, you must do so immediately; if you have seen it, you must see it again. It is the movie of my youth and the rebirth of black comedy after the 80s killed the genre. Veronica Sawyer (Wynona Rider) is uncomfortable with the in crowd until Jason Dean (Christian Slater) shows up to make it all better by killing off a few teenagers. It's an excellent parody of teen life and the struggle for acceptance and escape from boredom.

In both films, when the main characters confront their "helpers", neither Harry nor J.D. gets it; they were just doing what a friend should do: helping out and solving problems. Sure they got a little carried away, but what are friends for?

Here's some merchandise for sale at

With a Friend Like Harry... (2000) - subtitled in English	-- VHS
With a Friend Like Harry... (2000) - dubbed in English	-- VHS
With a Friend Like Harry... (2000)	-- DVD
Heathers (1989)	-- VHS
Heathers (1989)	-- DVD
Heathers: Original Soundtrack	-- Compact Disc

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