cinema obscura Triple-Header: "Neverwas" (2005) , "The Big White" (2005) & "Lonely Hearts" (2006)

Straight to video.

Straight to cable.

Straight to hell.

Straight to nowhere.

So was the shared fate to two star-heavy flicks that caught my attention - belatedly - this week.

2005's "The Big White," directed by someone named Mark Mylod, stars Robin Williams, Holly Hunter, Woody Harrelson, Giovanni Ribisi, Tim Blake Nelson and Alison Lohman. It plays on The Movie Channel (TMC) on July 14 and 22. Is that a premiere?

Meanwhile, Joshua Michael Stern's "Neverwas," also from 2005, is toplined by Aaron Eckhart, Ian McKellen, Jessica Lange, Nick Nolte, William Hurt, Michael Moriarty, Brittany Murphy, Vera Farmiga, Alan Cumming and Cynthia Stevenson. It's new on DVD.

I won't burden you with a synopsis for either film because, with those lists of players, who cares?

One more question: Exactly how bad could these two be not to have been released?

Same goes for "Lonley Hearts," with stars John Travolta, James Gandolfini, Salma Hayek, Jaret Leto and Laura Dern, and which played only two markets - New York and Los Angeles - before going straight to hell, er, DVD.

For the record, it's a remake of Leonard Kastle's cult fave, "The Honeymoon Killers."

Cinema Obscura is a recurring feature of The Passionate Moviegoer, devoted to those films that have been largely forgotten. Suggestions welcome.

(Artwork: Poster art for "The Big White," "Neverwas" and "Lonely Hearts")