Latest video: e-ndless love

By Ewan McDonald

They're all out today. Big releases in the video stores feature Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, Warren Beatty, Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon. Not to mention the really big stars - Babe the talking pig and those, well, not always so cute cartoon babies, the Rugrats.

* In an era when every man in movies wants to be the next Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks continues his quest to be the next Cary Grant.With writer-director Nora Ephron back at the word processor and lens, Hanks and Meg Ryan reprise their Sleepless in Seattle roles in You've Got Mail, which might well have been called Neuroses in New York.

In this remake of the 1949 film The Shop Around the Corner which trivia buffs will recall starred Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullivan, Hanks plays Joe Fox and Ryan is Kathleen Kelly. They live and work near each other on New York City's Upper West Side, haunting the same deli, Starbucks and streets. Joe lives with a hyperactive book editor (Parker Posey); Kathleen with an erudite newspaper columnist (Greg Kinnear).

Both believe their life and love are satisfactory until they meet in a computer chat-room and begin conversing via e-mail. Under the electronic pseudonyms NY152 and Shopgirl, Joe and Kathleen confide everything to their computer correspondent - except their identities.

As friendship warms into electronic affection, Joe opens the latest superstore in his chain of Fox Books a few blocks from Kathleen's children's book store, the Shop Around the Corner. With its discounts, huge inventory and espresso bar, Fox Books seems certain to put Kathleen's cosy neighbourhood store - inherited from her mother - out of business.

Cyber-Joe finds out who Electronic-Kathleen is; she doesn't know who her correspondent is. Which allows romance to blossom in classic and conventional Hollywood manner. And that sums up You've Got Mail: a lightweight evening's viewing for a midwinter night.

* It's the last weekend of the 1996 California election campaign. Senator Jay Bulworth (Warren Beatty) is fighting off a strong challenger for his long-held seat. He hasn't eaten or slept in days.

On the verge of a nervous breakdown, Bulworth arranges his own suicide by hiring a hitman to assassinate him during the final weekend of the campaign, after making a deal with a corrupt lobbyist for a lot of life insurance to benefit his daughter.

Knowing he's about to die Bulworth takes an unusual option for a politician. He starts to tell the electorate the truth - and no, he did not just make that all up. And he meets Nina (Halle Berry), a much younger African-American woman (30 years after You're So Vain, Beatty can still kid himself). With life looking up, Bulworth must stop the hit he has put out on himself. Bulworth is a good idea, tries to take the proverbial out of American politics and got good reviews, but for my money it doesn't quite come off.

* Isabel (Julia Roberts) is a career-minded photographer who, against her will, becomes Stepmom to the two children of her partner Luke (Ed Harris). Jackie (Susan Sarandon), the children's mother, resents Isabel's intrusion. When Jackie discovers she is terminally ill and Isabel's relationship with Luke becomes serious, both women realise they must put aside their differences - for the sake of the children.

* Time for total escapism. Try Storm: as the weather becomes more unpredictable and unusual, the United States Government develops a device to control freak weather patterns at the flick of a switch. The gadget is tested in August 1992. Scientists lose control of it and within hours a deadly hurricane forms. In the wake of this catastrophe, all evidence of the programme is buried.

Seven years later the device's creator (Martin Sheen) is sure his machine is now perfect. The STORM device is launched into a weather front 500km off California. Within moments the storm has accelerated into a super-hurricane heading straight for Los Angeles. The only way to stop it is for an expert (Luke Perry) to be flown into the hurricane and regain control of the device. Well, they don't have much hope, do they?

The team has just three hours before the hurricane hits LA, but there's a saboteur on board and now a battle is taking place 20,000ft above the Pacific Ocean ...

* And another, with horror this time. It's been more than a decade since Child's Play introduced Chucky, the murderous doll with the soul of a devil-worshipper. In Bridge of Chucky, the fourth instalment, Chucky and demonic mate Tiffany embark on a cross-country killing spree, indulging in perverse love scenes and destructive tantrums as they attempt to swap their plastic bodies for the real thing.

* Two for those who are still playing with toys. The Rugrats Movie takes TV's smallest superstars to the big screen. In this story the babies decide that young newcomer Dil's attention-getting antics are more than they can handle, so they forego their afternoon naps and return him to the hospital. Unfortunately the babies lose their way and end up lost in a vast forest.

* Babe: Pig in the City continues the story of the precocious pig who wanted to be a sheepdog. Having triumphed at the national sheepdog trials (in the first film), Babe returns home a hero but causes a mishap which leaves Farmer Hoggett in traction while the bank is threatening foreclosure.

Mrs Hoggett's only hope for saving the farm is to accept an offer for Babe to demonstrate his shepherding abilities at an overseas fair in exchange for a generous appearance fee. Babe and Mrs Hoggett set off on a journey that takes them to a faraway metropolis. Bleaker, definitely not as sweet as the first slice of bacon.

* Finally, one for 70s retro junkies. CHiPs 99 takes a paunchier "Ponch" and straighter-than-ever Officer Jon back to the freeway in a TV-movie reuniting the cast of the hit motorcycle cops series. Guest cameos include Judge Judy Sheindlin and O.J. Simpson's lawyer, Johnnie Cochran.