Three Days of the Potato

Henry Hyde has three days to get to the bottom of this -- three videotapes of three witnesses to unravel a mystery that two thirds of Americans profess to be bored to death by. Alternative: Three Days of the Condor (1975). And if Hyde looks nothing like Robert Redford, well, neither did Bob Woodward -- and he's been milking Watergate for what, 25 years? Sidney Pollack's tight, star-studded thriller fed the mid-'70s appetite for intrigue that Nixon's downfall whetted. What will we get from Hollywood when Hyde comes up short and a dazed Clinton limps away? The Deer Hunter (1978)?

And the Please Remain in Your Homes on Friday movie of the week: She's All That (1999). This make-over-the-geeky-girl flick, of course, is just another high school Cinderella story in a long and venerated tradition, but at the head of the class sits Can't Buy Me Love (1987). Famed '80s underdog Patrick Dempsey rents, loses and then wins the prom queen in spite of himself. Classic "cafeteria" speech near the end. One question about the latest rehash: the girl, Laney (Rachel Leigh Cook) is clearly a hottie with her glasses on -- (CP doesn't get many press passes, but he saw the commercial), so why does she have to be the prom queen too? Call me a male war bride, but there's a troubling message to our youth in there somewhere. Verdict: Wait for the video.