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On Demand movie highlights

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

(Comcast Free Movies) Modest ones are more in order for this updating of Charles Dickens's classic about a poor young man brought into contact with wealth, to his unhappiness. Ethan Hawke is the Pip figure: In this version, he's a Florida Gulf Coast fisherman turned painter in hellish SoHo. Gwyneth Paltrow's tease routine as the icy heartbreaker is the best thing in the film. But moody settings and daring camera angles can't fill the emotional vacuum. (R; runs through Jan. 1)

ARMY OF DARKNESS

(Comcast Free Movies) It's hard to imagine a better sword 'n' sorcery sendup. Sam Raimi stylishly fills the first half of this one with Indiana Jones panache and the second half with Ray Harryhausen-style special effects, dominated by xylophone-like skeletons doing an "Alexander Nevsky" number on King Arthur, with the dumb-hunk hero and his chainsaw their only hope. (R; runs through Feb. 14)

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DANTE’S PEAK

(Encore on Comcast) Nice special effects in this volcano movie. You even feel they've got some of the science right. But the natural disaster is eclipsed by a man-made disaster — a dumb script that traps Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton in cardboard heroics. (PG-13; runs through Feb. 14)