The June 6 video releases offer a lot of murderous kooks and a smidgen of homoeroticism. Hey, it’s kind of like the Mercury office!
• MR. DEATH–Erroll Morris’ documentary of Fred Leuchter Jr., an execution device engineer-turned-revisionist historian, is so good you’ll wanna puke. Leuchter Jr. commits a series of gut-wrenching travesties, from making electric chairs more “efficient” to defacing Auschwitz and claiming the Holocaust never happened. Only he’s such a simpleton, you almost feel sorry for him–almost. JS
• THE EEL–You won’t believe how this demure, Japanese fisherman can be such a fucking oddball. After he snaps and slaughters his wife, he slowly pays his penance and redeems his soul. Hypnotic and slyly funny. PB
• PLAY IT TO THE BONE–For a boxing movie, this one has too much yak-yak and not enough smack-smack. But the scenes where Antonio Banderas has homosexual fantasies in the ring make it almost worthwhile! WSH
• THE GREEN MILE–Don’t bother. Unless, of course, you feel like 1) Watching Tom Hanks play the same shmuck he always does, or 2) Enforcing the racist ideas of overrated, lobster-trapping hack Stephen King. KD