Search - The Dress Code on DVD

MPAA Rating: PG-13 Movie Release: 2000 DVD Release: 09/25/2001 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV Subtitles: English, French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 48 mins Studio: MGM Members Wishing: 0 Genres: Comedy Drama, Coming-of-Age, Domestic Comedy

Shirley MacLaine makes her feature directorial debut with this offbeat comedy. Bruno (Alex D. Linz) is an eight-year-old boy attending a Catholic school; he is bright, is a good student, and wants to become an etymologist. He also likes to wear dresses, which causes him plenty of problems -- bullies beat him up on a regular basis, and the school's Mother Superior (Kathy Bates) thinks that something must be wrong with him. Bruno's mother Angela (Stacey Halprin), who tips the scales at 450 pounds, has just lost her husband Dino (Gary Sinise) to trampy Donna Marie (Joey Lauren Adams). With her pal Dolores (Jennifer Tilly) giving Angela regular reports on Dino's activities, she's too occupied to worry much about her son. When Bruno is hurt one day while wearing a skirt, he's taken to the hospital; with Angela suffering from a heart attack and Dino refusing to look after him, it falls to his grandmother Helen (MacLaine) to take care of the boy. But Bruno has finally found a playmate at school who doesn't find him strange -- Shaniqua (Kaimi Davael), a young black girl who wants to be a cowgirl. While Bruno was Shirley MacLaine's first attempt at directing a fictional film, it was not her first experience behind the camera; she previously made the Oscar-nominated documentary The Other Half of the Sky: A China Memoir. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Alex D. Linz - Bruno
Shirley MacLaine - Helen
Gary Sinise - Dino Battaglia
Kathy Bates - Mother Superior

Shirley MacLaine makes her directing debut in the cross-dressing film Dress Code starring Gary Sinise and Kathy Bates. MGM presents The Dress Code in 1.85:1 non-anamorphic widescreen. =The Dress Code could have benefited from an anamorphic transfer, as colors tend to look a tad washed out and the image somewhat murky. Although imperfections abound, this transfer is still very watchable. Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 and, while mixed evenly, is hardly very impressive. Also included on this disc are English captions as well as English, French, and Spanish subtitles. Sadly, fans of The Dress Code won't find any insightful supplements on this disc, only "interactive menus" that are hardly worth mentioning. ~ Patrick Naugle, All Movie Guide