Mercury Video Picks
• Dude, Where's My Car? (2000)--As the no-holds-barred Sydney, Garner leaves behind a smoldering wake of buildings, trashed terrorist hideouts and heaps of bruised-and-battered ninjas. But in her breakout role in Dude, she played the emblem of moral strictness and sedate suburbia--the stoner's hot but innocent girlfriend who refuses to give him one more chance.
• Wet Hot American Summer (2001)--With the look of a deer caught in headlights, Bradley Cooper plays Will Tippin, the reporter friend of Sydney's who badly wants to climb into her hotpants. In Cooper's big screen debut, however, he plays Ben, the bitch to a (male) preppy camp counselor. Written by the team from MTV's The State, this film is a send-up of Porky's, Meatballs and almost every summer camp movie ever written. It may have gone straight to video, but it's still an absolute gem!
• The Pallbearer (1995)--In spite of trailers that advertised slapstick pranks, this is a surprisingly moody and sullen comedy. David Schwimmer's hound-dog face and bumbling awkwardness fit well into the role of a grown-up loser seduced by the grieving mom of a deceased high school friend (who Schwimmer can't recall). Michael Vartan, who plays Sydney's heartbreakingly cute CIA "handler," is the lurking Iago-esque Scott. While offering gracious helpings of moral support for his best friend, he also shamelessly undermines Schwimmer's attempt to win Gwyneth Paltrow's anemic heart. PHIL BUSSE
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