There are many notable releases this week, but not a lot of nudity:

Out of the Cold (1999) is the story of an American dancer whose career is faltering mostly due to his drinking, who is given a chance to go to Estonia where his family immigrated from, and appear in a relative's nightclub. It is the mid 30's, and the Russian occupation of the Baltic states is the backdrop to a love story. The dancer, Keith Carradine, falls in love with Mia Kirshner, an aristocrat well above his social station. She escapes to America, but he is arrested, his passport burned, and is sent to a Siberian work camp. The story is told in flash-backs as he is trying to get permission to leave the country.

An IMDB reader from Estonia comments that the film is a very accurate portrayal of what happened in Estonia under Russian occupation. Another comments that the main characters are not that engaging. I would agree on both points. Attempts at humor largely fall flat, and the romantic portion isn't especially compelling. There is nothing approaching nudity. C-

Unbreakable (2000) is a rather odd tale starring Bruce Willis as a man who is the lone survivor of a train wreck. He is contacted by Samuel L. Jackson, a man with a genetic disorder that makes his bones brittle, who asks the question that becomes the plot of the film, "When was the last time you were sick?" Turns out, the answer is never. Jackson's mother gave him comic books as a reward for daring to venture out of the house as a child, and, as an adult, the comics, and most especially super-heroes are his life. His theory is that Willis is a real life super-hero.

Willis is in a failing marriage, with a son who worships him, and works as a security guard at a football stadium. Saying much more would be a spoiler, but the world seemed to like this more than I did. While Willis and Jackson, as usual, were great, I didn't find a lot to interest me in the story. IMDB readers say 7.3/10, and Berardinelli says 3 stars. This offering is from M. Night Shyamalan (the Sixth Sense), and contains no nudity. C+.

Dolores Claiborne (1995) is probably my favorite of the new releases this week, and stars Kathy Bates in the title role, and Jennifer Jason Leigh as Selena St. George as her daughter. As the film opens, we hear two woman struggling a the top of the stairs. One falls to the bottom, and the other comes down the stairs, then goes into the kitchen, seemingly out of her head, grabs a marble rolling pin, comes back out, and seems ready to finish off the fallen woman, when the postman arrives. Cut to a New York newspaper office, where Leigh is arguing for a plum of a story with her editor, and is given a FAX with a clipping of the story of her mother's arrest. After an absence of 15 years, she returns to Maine, and a mother that she obviously doesn't much like. This Stephan King adaptation is told something like peeling away the layers of an onion, getting us closer and closer to what happened both in this death and in the death of Leigh's father 15 years before.

Bates should have had an Oscar for her portrayal of this curmudgeonly old Main-er who had never been off of her island, and had worked for the dead woman for low pay most of her life. An example of her personality is the line, "Sometimes being a bitch is all a woman has to hold on to." This is as good a character driven suspense drama as I have seen in a while. Maltin says 3 1/2 stars, Berardinelli and Ebert say 3 stars, and IMDB readers have it at 7.1/10. I say B-. Nudity report: none.

Boiler Room (2000) shares a theme with Wall Street. A young hustler tries to get rich quick in the stock market working for a shady brokerage. There is a sub-plot involving his father, a federal judge, and a bunch of rather sleazy peers. Like the Michael Douglas character, he is bright and ambitious, and, like the Michael Douglas character in Wall Street, he develops a conscience. Although the scam is different (selling stock in non-existent companies vs. insider trading), the plot is rather derivative. That doesn't mean that it isn't well done. They were aware of the comparison. In one scene, all the junior brokers are watching Wall Street, and reciting the lines along with the characters.

IMDB readers say 6.9/10. The film was a marginal box office success at $16.938m against a $9M budget. I say C+. If this is your kind of film, you will enjoy it. Nudity report: two unknown hookers are seen in a long shot in a deleted scene.

Be sure to pay Graphic Response a visit at his website. www.graphic-barry.com.

By the way...if you're like me than you know how excited I am about the proposed Baywatch reuinion movie..."Baywatch Blast"!

Here's the pitch thanks to IMDb news...

David Hasselhoff Saved By Whale

The new Baywatch movie will have lifeguard Mitch Buchannon back from the dead - thanks to a whale. In the final episode of the famous TV series Buchannon, played by David Hasselhoff, was killed in an underwater explosion. But in the forthcoming movie, fans learn that Buchannon never actually died, instead he was saved by a migrating whale who takes him to a desert island. Former cast members including Gena Lee Nolin and Carmen Electra will resurface to visit Buchannon when he returns back to civilization.

Hopefully it will be made! IMDb News also reported a few production problems....

Baywatch Reunion Goes Belly-up (Oct 8, 2001)

The planned Baywatch movie is close to drowning in paperwork with money arguments between stars blighting the plans. Scheduled to begin filming this week in Hawaii, the Fox TV pic - tentatively titled Baywatch Blast - has been pushed back to next spring, if it happens at all. A Fox spokesperson blames the delay on the events of September 11th, saying, "The special deals the production company had with the airlines and the hotels couldn't be fulfilled because of what happened." However, a source tells TV Guide Online many actors refused to sign on the dotted line after they learned that David Hasselhoff - the franchise's executive producer and star - offered special contracts to some of Baywatch's more popular faces. "There were three payment tiers," reveals the insider. "The top was reserved just for him, and there was a middle tier for Pam Anderson, Yasmine Bleeth, Gena Lee Nolin, David Chokachi, Erika Eleniak and Nicole Eggert." Hasselhoff's explanation is simpler. He says, "We had 25 castmembers on our wish list, but then the budget was way too big. So now I'm trying to get the big girls like Pamela and Yasmine to come back and go to work where we gave them their start."