The Others (2001, Rated PG-13, 104 minutes) available from Dimension Home Entertainment

The Others is a movie that didn’t smash the box office in its first week but continued to do pretty good business week after week and eventually topped the $100 million mark. Its success is due to a number of things: the thrilling story with a twist at the end, the rising status as Nicole Kidman as a lead actress, and the sexiness of the two kids who play Kidman’s children.

While there are a number of plot points that are hard to talk about without giving away too much, Kidman plays Grace, a mother of two totally sexy kids, whose husband has left to fight in WWI. They live in a large house in a remote section of the English countryside. The children have a rare disease, which forbids them from being in bright light. They cannot go outside during the day and can only live inside with dimly lit lamps. The family struggle to get by until a family of housekeepers come to help the family.

Soon the family starts to hear strange things, and the movie takes on a ghostly feel. Anyway, at the end it turns out that Kidman and the children are actually dead and they are ghosts haunting the house. The things they think are ghosts are actually people looking to buy the house. The three housekeepers turn out to be dead as well, and they just came back because they apparently are housekeeping ghosts. That’s SPOOKY!!!

While everyone in the film gives a good performance, it is the foxy Kidman and her two sexy children that steal the show. Sometimes Kidman kisses her kids and hugs them so much you would’ve thought this movie should have been rated X. But it is understandable with the looser ratings system nowadays.

The DVD release of The Others is a two-disc extravaganza that features plenty of extras. There is a documentary on the making of The Others, a visual effects piece, “An Intimate Look At Director Alejandro Amenabar” (don’t get too excited, unfortunately this is not as intimate as one might hope, if you know what I mean), a still gallery and more. The set also features a French Language Track! AWESOME!!

Overall, the movie is great thanks to some sexy performance and some great bonuses on the DVD release. The twist at the end when they all turn out to be dead is really hard to see coming, so it is really a shocker.

Rating: ? briefs (out of 5)