Reckless Video: Maple Leaf's DVD and Blu Ray Video Rentals: 2010

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Week of December 28

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Violence for Hire

Hit man and weapons designer Jack (George Clooney) is on the run, hiding in a small, Italian town in Anton Corbijn's The American. Jack is told to wait in small-town solitude by his contact (Johan Leysen) who commissions him to make a rifle for an assassin (Thelka Reuten). Happy to have a job that doesn't require him to pull a trigger, Jack goes about his work professionally, but can't manage to stay isolated: he makes connections with the local priest (Paolo Bonacelli) and prostitute (Violante Placido), both of whom make him question his dangerous life. Unfolding slowly, The American progresses like a cross between a Jason Bourne adventure and Michelangelo Antonioni film from the 1970s. On DVD and Blu Ray.

After taking the head of a kingpin, assassin Bo (Jacky Wu) is stranded on one of Hong Kong's outlying islands during a typhoon in Legendary Assassin. He makes a connection with a woman who happens to be a police officer, and, after he intervenes on their behalf, the police befriend him as a wanderer with excellent kung fu... but when violence erupts on the island, and gangsters seek to avenge their fallen boss, Bo has to make a choice between his lethal profession and his new friends.

Action hero Alice (Milla Jovovich), surviving three Resident Evil movies, is stripped of her mutant superpowers by evil Umbrella scientist Wesker (Shawn Roberts) in Paul W.S. Anderson's Resident Evil: Afterlife.

Reunited with Claire (Ali Larter), she must help the leader (Boris Kodjoe) of a team of survivors (including Wentworth Miller and Kim Coates) in Los Angeles find Arcadia: a sanctuary from the zombie-like madness that has overrun the world. In her way are hordes of bloodthirsty zombies and seemingly indestructible Umbrella Corporation bio-weapons; on her side are scrappy fighters, guns that never run out of bullets, and lots of Matrix-style slo-mo and effects. With Spencer Locke. On DVD and Blu Ray.

The conservative Stephanie (Amber Heard) and her wilder, more reckless friend Ellie (Odette Yustman) fight and split up during their bicycle trip through Argentina in And Soon the Darkness. When Ellie disappears, Stephanie searches for her; though the local police doubt her insistence that something's wrong, a stranger (Karl Urban) who's also lost someone is willing to help... but can Stephanie trust him?

Harry (Jamey Sheridan) is summoned to his old friend's (Steve Buscemi) death bed to deal with the guilt of something from their past in Handsome Harry. Harry travels to the remaining members of his old Navy unit (including Aidan Quinn and John Savage) to ask them each about the night they savagely beat David Kagan, one of their own... a night he can barely remember. If Harry can piece together the story, then maybe he can find Kagan (Campbell Scott) and ask his forgiveness.

Set during a rainy summer in a small town, the French comedy Let It Rain stars Agnes Jaoui as Agathe Villanova, an acclaimed feminist author. Traveling to the country to put her childhood home up for sale, she's followed by Jean-Pierre Bacri, who wants to make a documentary film about her. The comedy of class and station unfolds between the filmmaker, Agathe's family, and Jamel Debbouze, whose mother has worked for the Villanovas all her life.

Will (Patrick Wilson) is an architect who lives by his designs in Life In Flight, and has designed himself a perfect life: a good career, a wife (Amy Smart), and a son. While working on a project that seems to be cursed, he partners with a talented designer (Lynn Collins) and the chemistry between the two of them make Will second guess the "perfect" life he's constructed for himself.

This week's entry into Reckless Video's TV New Releases is the 2nd season of the Showtime drama The United States of Tara, rejoining the story of Tara's treatment for dissociative identity disorder and her struggles to lead a normal life under trying circumstances.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Week of December 21

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Lies, Façades, and Misplaced Trust

Angelina Jolie is CIA agent Evelyn Salt in Philip Noyce's thriller Salt, suddenly on the run when a Russian defector (Daniel Olbrychski) arrives at her office and names her as a Russian spy. Her longtime friend, agent, and boss (Liev Schreiber) trusts her, a counter-intelligence agent (Chiwetel Ejiofor) wants to interrogate her, but they both chase her as she flees from capture and becomes entangled in a web of deep-cover Russian agents planning to topple the United States. Salt can never be sure if anyone is who they seem to be, and no one knows if they can trust her: is her chase and trail of destruction Evelyn's fight to save the government or to destroy it? On DVD and Blu Ray.

Set 23 years after his own Oscar-winning Wall Street, Oliver Stone rejoins the unscrupulous Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. When Jake (Shia LaBeouf), a young trader, finds out his fiance (Carey Mulligan) is the Gekko's estranged daughter, he seeks out his legendary father-in-law to be. Jake begins working for Bretton James (Josh Brolin), the man who destroyed his beloved father-figure and boss (Frank Langella), while Gekko's deviousness begins to infect him as Jake's own practices become more morally ambiguous. Secretly trading business strategy for reconciliation with his daughter, Gordon develops a relationship with Jake, but they both have their own secrets and plans, and both have to survive Wall Street during the turmoil of the 2008 bail out. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Quick witted and bright Olive (Emma Stone) ends her highschool anonymity in Easy A-- a lie about losing her virginity to an imaginary boyfriend is overheard by Marianne (Amanda Bynes), the crusading leader of a puritanical church group... someone who spreads the gossip through the school. By pretending to have sex with a gay classmate (Dan Byrd), Olive rescues him from his violent, homophobic classmates and furthers her bad girl image. She flaunts her fictitious scandal by stitching a red "A" onto her clothes, a la The Scarlet Letter (assigned to her class by Thomas Haden Church, her favorite teacher) as Marianne crusades to have her thrown out of school... but as Olive's new image threatens to destroy her life, she finds that she can't un-tell her own lies. With Penn Badgley. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Quarantine director John Erick Dowdle helms the first entry in producer M. Night Shyamalan's "The Night Series"-- Devil traps five strangers in an elevator: a security guard, an elderly woman, a salesman, an ex-Marine, and a woman of uncertain means. As the elevator lights flicker out and they are killed off, one by one, each of them reveals an unsavory past that may have won them their harm, and a terrifying truth that something else is in locked in the elevator with them. With Chris Messina. On DVD and Blu Ray.

"If you meet your double, you should kill him. Or that he will kill you... two of you is one too many. By the end of the script, one of you must die."

The strangely meta Double Take is a Hitchcockian "wrong man" thriller about Alfred Hitchcock himself. Investigating the concept of doubles along with newsreel and television footage from the Cold War era, the film combines a paranoid short story and the question of identity into a semi-documentary about reality, truth, and self.

Dramas

Ned (Ben Mendelsohn) returns to his family's isolate, Australian home to visit his dying father (Bryan Brown) in Beautiful Kate. Accompanied by his young fiance (Maeve Dermody), Ned reunites with his family, but being home unearths old memories of his twin sister, Kate, and his older brother, Cliff; as he remembers more of his past, he begins to understand more of the family's

secrets, and has to try and control the impact they'll have on his present.

Set in early 1900s Britain, Angel is the first English language film by director Francois Ozon. Angel Deverell (Romola Garai) begins as a willful and imaginative teenager who writes fanciful novels, dreaming up a world where she's adored and respected. When a publisher (Sam Neill) and his wife (Charlotte Rampling) embrace her work, Angel's reality becomes the kind of larger-than-life melodrama she writes and daydreams about. With Lucy Russell and Michael Fassbender.

Moose, who promised not to street dance anymore, is studying electrical engineering at NYU, but he stumbles into a dance battle in Step Up 3. Winning the battle, he joins a tightly knit dance troupe with Rick Malambri and Alyson Stoner. Without enough time for both studying and practicing with his crew, Moose has choose between his academic career and embracing his love of dancing.

Makoto is a normal girl who has one bad day that should end with her flying over her handlebars into an oncoming train, but after the crash, she wakes up a few minutes before the train arrives in The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. When she realizes she can jump back in time to relive moments she'd like to fix, Makoto uses her new power for trivial things, but every inconvenience she saves herself ends up affecting someone else. She begins to understand the consequences of her actions when she discovers the limits of her time leaps, and the tragedies she set in motion that she may not be able to fix.

Misha Collins is a controversial scientist in SyFy's Stonehenge Apocalypse, and he discovers disturbances in the earth's electromagnetic field. His readings suggest Stonehenge is part of an ancient machine that could destroy the earth, and he joins an elite team to prevent a doomsday cult (led by Hill Harper) from using Stonehenge to bring about the end of the world.

New this week in Reckless Video's TV New Releases are the second half of the Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica, the return of science fiction comedy Futurama, and Family Guy's take on Return of the Jedi: It's a Trap!

We also have a Christmas Classics Sing-A-Long DVD, collecting songs from Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph, and Santa Clause Is Comin to Town (among others), and two Miffy and Friends discs: Miffy's Christmas Tree and Miffy's Adventure.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Week of December 14

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Flash and Spectacle

Director Joe Carnahan delivers the origin story of a group of 80's action icons with The A-Team, jumping into a mission with Hannibal Smith (Liam Neeson) and Faceman Peck (Bradley Cooper) as they meet B.A. Baracus and Howling Mad Murdock (Sharlto Copley) and become an unstoppable team. Framed by a devious CIA agent (Patrick Wilson) and pursued by a

DCIS lieutenant (Jessica Biel), the team is on the run and must out fight, out run, and out plan everyone that's chasing them and clear their names. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Soren (Jim Sturgess) is a young owl who dreams of the epic adventures he hears in legends when he and his brother Kludd (Ryan Kwanten) are captured by a nation of evil owls in Zack Snyder's Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole. Imprisoned by Metalbeak (Joel Edgerton) and Nyra (Helen Mirren) who are brainwashing their captives, Kludd is taken in by them, but Soren escapes to find his legendary guardians and ask them to help wage a war to stop the evil owls and free their prisoners. With Sam Neill and Geoffrey Rush. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Unconventional Families

Supervillain Gru (Steve Carell) is afraid he's being upstaged by Vector (Jason Segel), a new villain who's stealing the world's monuments. To prove his worth, Gru has to steal Vector's shrink ray and then shrink and steal the moon in Despicable Me... but Vector's defenses only seem to have one weakness: he opens his fortress for three orphan girls selling cookies door to door.

Gru works out a cookie-based strategy, but in order to make it work he needs to adopt the girls; now he has to orchestrate an evil scheme while being a dad. Can he be a supervillain while he's taking the girls to Super Silly Fun Land and dance recitals? On DVD and Blu Ray.

Isabel Green (Maggie Gyllenhaal) has her hands full trying to keep up the family farm, run a village shop with Maggie Smith, and care for her three rambunctious children while her husband is away fighting during WWII. When she suddenly has to care for her spoiled niece and nephew, she needs some magical help in Nanny McPhee Returns, and while Nanny McPhee (Emma Thompson) can stop the two groups of kids from warring amongst themselves, Isabel's disreputable brother-in-law (Rhys Ifans) might be more trouble than anyone can handle.

A more adult film about family, Jay & Mark Duplass's Cyrus sees John (John C. Reilly), seven years divorced, finally starting up a new relationship with Molly (Marisa Tomei), who lives with Cyrus (Jonah Hill) her 21-year-old son. When John tries to pursue his romance with Molly, he finds that the relationship between mother and son is more intimate than he expected, and Cyrus might see him as an intruder and a threat.
Bazil (Dany Boon) catches a stray bullet in the head that costs him everything and nearly costs him his life in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Micmacs. When he's taken in by "Slammer" (Jean-Pierre Marielle), Bazil joins a group of misfits that live underneath a junkyard who adopt him as one of their own. When he decides to strike back at the people who made the weapons that unraveled his life, Bazil uses his new family (and their unique talents) to compose an elaborate revenge caper. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Karen's (Annette Bening) whole adult life has been shaped by giving her daughter, Elizabeth, up for adoption when she was 14 in Mother and Child. Now in her late thirties, fiercely independent Elizabeth (Naomi Watts) is a successful lawyer driven to be in control of her own life; neither mother or daughter have tried to contact the other. Meanwhile, Lucy (Kerry Washington) and her husband are seeking to adopt a baby because they can't have one of their own. As the mothers and daughters work through the adoptions that dominate their lives, they each begin to understand their own paths to happiness. With Jimmy Smits and Samuel L. Jackson.

Cops and Robbers

Desk bound detectives Allen and Hoitz (Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg) aren't the "car chase and explosion" cops like Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson... they're The Other Guys. Too egotistical to realize they're not immortal, the hero cops jump from a 20 story building while chasing bank robbers, leaving laughingstocks Allen and Hoitz to fill the gap. Though Allen is more interested in investigating accounting than the kind of high profile work Hoitz prefers, one of Allen's permit violation cases puts the duo on the trail of Steve Coogan's multi-billion dollar scheme: a serious case than could make them heroes, if they can survive the gunfights, Ray Stevenson, and each other. On DVD and Blu Ray.

The directorial follow-up to his acclaimed Gone Baby Gone, Ben Affeck's The Town is the story of a group of Bostonian hijackers and bank robbers. Jem (Jeremy Renner), fresh out of prison and eager to pull another job, re-teams with Doug (Ben Affleck) and his crew only to have a bank job turn sour... which causes hot-headed Jem takes a hostage (Rebecca Hall). While Doug keeps up with their former hostage and the two begin to form a relationship, an FBI agent (Jon Hamm) starts to find ways to take apart the underground fraternity of heist men. With Pete Postlethwaite and Blake Lively. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Documentaries

A film about a film about street artists, Exit through the Gift Shop is directed by the street artist Banksy. Originally, casual filmmaker Thierry Guetta, who fell in love with street art and filmed all the artists he could, intended to make a film about Banksy; once Thierry had thousands of hours of footage, Banksy turned around and made the movie about Thierry, his obsession with art, and what does or doesn't separate art from product and hype... all of which may or may not be real.

The critically acclaimed Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work looks at the long professional life of Joan Rivers, and all of the peaks and valleys she's traversed over a decades-long career. Spending time behind the scenes as she continues to work on television, in clubs, and commercials, and the effects of her singular drive to keep her status in show business.

Documentary filmmaker Linda Hattendorf went to find artist Jimmy Mirikitani in the aftermath of 9/11in The Cats of Mirikitani. The film explores the painter's life selling art on the streets of New York, his history during World War II, and eventually to his life in the fallout of the World Trade Center, where he was still on the streets around Washington Square Park.

Based on actual events, Dear Mr. Gacy tells the story of Jason Moss (Jesse Moss) who, in trying to write a thesis paper, began writing letters to notorious serial killer John Wayne Gacy (William Forsythe). Posing as a victim in Gacy's "type," the two begin to develop a relationship as Gacy writes to and calls Moss, and Moss allows Gacy to believe he's seducing a vulnerable young man.

New this week to Reckless Video's TV New Releases are the 8th and final season of 24, and the 4th season of the British comedy The IT Crowd.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Week of December 7

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The World of the Mind

Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) stages elaborate heists in Christopher Nolan's Inception, but instead of bank vaults he breaks into dreams, stealing secrets instead of physical wealth. Few people believe an idea can be put in to someone's mind (as opposed to taking one out), but he's hired by an entrepreneur (Ken Watanabe) to place a new thought into the mind of a competitor (Cillian Murphy) because Cobb is the only person who's ever effectively implanted an idea into someone's dream. With such a delicate (and dangerous) job, he needs to put together an expert team of his "point man" (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a forger (Tom Hardy) who can take on different identities within dreams, an architect (Ellen Page) to design the worlds inside minds, and a chemist (Dileep Rao) to design the custom sedatives to keep them all in the dream world. Cobb is the only one who can lead the near-impossible mission, but his jobs are haunted by a ghost (Marion Cotillard) in his own mind that could destroy the entire team. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Holidays

Based on the holiday classic It's a Wonderful Life, Mike Myers stars in Shrek Forever After where he feels less like a "real ogre" and more like a suburban dad, but a wish brings him to an alternate world where he's still feared by villagers but never met the people he loves in his real life. Helped by a Donkey (Eddie Murphy) who doesn't recognize him (but believes his story),

Shrek has to fight against fate and once again win the heart of Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) to reverse the wish and get his life back. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Zeus is a former police dog is adopted from the pound as an early Christmas present in The Dog Who Saved Christmas, but when he's left alone on Christmas Eve and burglars try to break in, the dog has to protect his new house, Home Alone-style. When the family goes to a ski resort in The Dog Who Saved Christmas Vacation, Zeus has a hard time fitting in with the other dogs but gets to prove his worth when the burglars return for another robbery, and Zeus gets to save the day. With Dean Cain.

Being a responsible adult

Barry Munday (Patrick Wilson) is a commitment-free womanizer when a girl's father catches them in a movie theater and beats him so badly that Barry's hospitalized and has to have his testicles removed. When a woman from a one-night stand he doesn't remember (Judy Greer) files a paternity suit against him, Barry sees it as his only chance to be a father. Even though she can't stand him, Barry tries to be a part of her life and be useful parent-to-be. With Mae Whitman, Malcolm McDowell, and Chloe Sevigny.

Jeff Bridges is a frustrated writer in A Dog Year when he adopts a border collie named Devon who seems, at first, to be the "dog from hell." Devon acts out and seems untrainable because of his troubled past, but if Bridges is going to help the dog, he has to become a more compassionate man to have any effect. With Lauren Ambrose, Lois Smith, and Welker White.

Documentaries

A pair of documentary filmmakers joined a US Army platoon for a year to film Restrepo, even accompanying them into the Korengal Valley, known as "the most dangerous place in the world," in 2007. The documentary is cut together from over 150 hours of footage, creating a critically acclaimed and realistic portrait of modern warfare and the soldiers in the field.

Best Worst Movie looks into the phenomenon of Troll 2, considered by some to be the worst movie ever made. Focusing on the festivals and screenings put on by the film's rabid cult following, the documentary reunites the cast and crew and gets behind the scenes of a well loved (but terrible) movie.

The story of Pacific Northwest Ballet's Sokvannara "Sy" Sar, discovered doing traditional dance in Cambodia, and Anne Bass, the dance patron who saw Sy's talent and took him to America. Considered too old to begin studying ballet, Dancing Across Borders follows Sy to school in New York and his eventual success in Seattle, covering his unique rise to acclaim in the dance world.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Week of November 30

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Action Blockbusters

The Sorcerer's Apprentice is set during an endless battle between two of Merlin's students: the loyal Balthazar (Nicolas Cage) who fights for good and Horvath (Alfred Molina), who betrayed Merlin and fights to free the evil Morgana (Alice Krige). After centuries, Balthazar finds the prophecy's Chosen One who can finally defeat Morgana: a young physics student (Jay Baruchel) who's more concerned with winning his childhood sweetheart (Teresa Palmer) than becoming a sorcerer... but Balthazar has to train him to fight against Horvath (and Toby Kebbell-- his own celebrity magician apprentice) to finally end the struggle between the good Merlinians and the evil Morganians and decide the fate of the world. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Cameron Diaz's flight home from a business trip takes an unexpected turn when a dashing spy (Tom Cruise) does battle with everyone on the plane in Knight and Day, with only the two of them surviving the flight. Since they boarded and survived the flight together, the secret agent community assumes they're partners, and her life suddenly becomes a rapid-fire adventure. Though she's never sure who the good guys or the bad guys are, she has her mysterious bodyguard (or abductor) to fight off everyone chasing them as they track a whiz-kid inventor (Paul Dano) and a device that could change the world. With Peter Sarsgaard and Marc Blucas. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Vampires - pro or con?

The third Twilight movie is Eclipse, furthering the triangle between Bella (Kristen Stewart), her devotion to the vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson), and the werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner) who believes Bella ought to be with him. As Bella considers eternity with Edward, another vampire (Bryce Dallas Howard) is raising an army of newly created undead to hunt and kill Bella and take revenge for her own lost love. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Based largely on the Twilight series, Vampires Suck is parody team Friedberg & Seltzer's take on supernatural teen romance, where the the incredibly mousse'd vampire (Matt Lanter) and the often shirtless werewolf (Chris Riggi) try to win Bella's affections in the town of Sporks, surrounded by pop culture in-jokes about Tiger Woods, the Kardashians, and Lady Gaga.

Relationships

Erin (Drew Barrymore), a newspaper intern, meets Garrett (Justin Long), a record label A&R scout and strike up a whirlwind romance in Going the Distance, but she's only in New York for a few weeks;

when her internship is done and Erin has to go back to the west coast, they decide to stay together in a long distance relationship. They both know how difficult long distance is, and while Garrett has his friends (Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis) questioning his choices, Erin has her sister (Christina Applegate) to make her paranoid about fidelity in each others' absence. They both have hard choices ahead if they want to make their lives work, together or apart. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Patricia Clarkson travels to Egypt with her UN official husband in Cairo Time, but she's mostly left on her own while he's at work. Her husband's friend (Alexander Siddig) helps guide her as she develops a love for her new surroundings, a new culture she's never experienced, and, unexpectedly, her guide.

Slightly less romantic, Michael Sheen and Helen McCrory reprise their roles from The Queen as Tony and Helen Blair in The Special Relationship, and their friendship with Bill and Hillary Clinton (Dennis Quaid and Hope Davis). As the Presidential and Prime Minister's families befriend one another and support as each sees the other through hard times in their personal and political careers.

Mads Mikkelsen is a Norse warrior in Valhalla Rising, surviving in 1000 AD as a captive and fighting for sport at the whim of his captor (Alexander Morton). Once he escapes and takes his revenge, the warrior joins a Christian crusader (Gary Lewis) and begins an epic journey of war and bloodshed that continues the only life he knows.

Two Disney documentaries are new this week, with Walt and El Grupo recounting Walt Disney's time in South America before America entered World War II, and Waking Sleeping Beauty focusing on the history of Disney studios between 1980's Fox and the Hound and 1994's The Lion King. Both films offer previously unavailable glimpses behind the scenes at Disney Studios.

The second season of Parks and Recreation continues the comedic story of the deputy director (Amy Poehler) of a midwestern Parks and Rec office, and the misadventures of a small, local government administration trying to turn a construction pit into a public park.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Week of November 23

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Dangerous Men

Sylvester Stallone leads an all-star cast of action icons in The Expendables as the head of a group of mercenaries hired to overthrow the dictator of a small, South American island. Amidst the group of rag-tag warriors, all aging professionals including Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, and Eric Roberts, conflict within their ranks is more dangerous than any enemy they could face, and when old comrades become bitter enemies, The Expendables stand against their most dangerous foes: their own former members. On DVD and Blu Ray.

A pair of men make a prison out of a nondescript apartment in The Disappearance of Alice Creed to hold the daughter of a wealthy man for ransom. They abduct Alice (Gemma Arterton) and set their plan in motion, but all three of them have different ideas about how the ransom should unfold. The powerful and demanding Vic (Eddie Marsan) wants to control every aspect of the ransom, while his more sensitive accomplice Danny (Martin Compston) is less predictable... and Alice just wants to escape, but nothing is ever certain in the balance of survival, jail time, and enough money to remake their lives.

Eat, Pray, Love

Based on the bestselling memoirs, Julia Roberts stars as Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat Pray Love, a divorcee who travels the world, leaving her unsatisfying life behind and seeking adventure, happiness, and love. With her ex-husband (Billy Crudup) behind her, she flies to Italy (Eat), discovers her spiritual side (Pray) in India, and eventually finds Love. With Javier Bardem and Viola Davis. On DVD and Blu Ray.

How you see the artist...

Set during the end of The Beatles' career, Lennon Naked addresses John Lennon's (Christopher Eccleston) reunion with his estranged father (Christopher Fairbank). Falling out of favor with the press after the "bigger than Jesus" incident and suffering troubles at home, Lennon is urged to confront his father for leaving, even as he's divorcing his first wife and possibly allowing history to repeat itself with his own son.

Only recently revealed as a performance art experiment based on Joaquin Phoenix's amazement that most viewers believed "reality television" is unscripted and genuine, I'm Still Here is a Borat-style

documentary of a fictional, provocative character. Directed by Casey Affleck, the film re-imagines the publicly accepted version of Phoenix into a confrontational figure tired of playing the character of himself-- his new persona scorns Hollywood, his fans, fellow actors, and the media as he attempts to reinvent himself as a revolutionary hip hop artist... with disastrous results.

Kids

Rob Reiner's Flipped is a coming-of-age, young love story as 8-year-old Julianna (Madeline Carroll) meets Bryce in 2nd grade and is sure she's found true love. As the story flips between the girl's and boy's points of view, they progress from their young start, where Bryce wants nothing to do with girls, into their teen years as they advance into junior high and reassess what they really mean to one another.

Sam Rockwell is a divorced, dead-beat dad in The Winning Season when he lands a job coaching a girls' basketball team. The coach is reluctant and the girls are stubborn, but his former success as a boy's coach gives him a little credibility, and if he can get the girls to start winning games he might just win them over and regain a little self respect. With Emma Roberts.

A sequel to Santa Buddies, The Search for Santa Paws sends the troupe of talking puppies out into the world looking for a missing Santa, who's lost his memory and is working as a department store Santa. The puppies need to save Santa, spread holiday cheer, and rescue Christmas.

Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country is a documentary composed of footage smuggled out of Burma during the 2007 uprisings by students and Buddhist monks against the military regime in power. Lucy Walker's documentary about the control of nuclear material and its spread after the end of the cold war, Countdown to Zero focuses on the dangers of nuclear theft and black market trading, and the ways these weapons can end up in dangerous hands.

A peaceful kingdom is terrorized by a fire dragon in SyFy's Fire and Ice: The Dragon Chronicles, and a brave princess (Amy Acker) and the son of a dragonslayer (Tom Wisdom) quest to free an ice dragon to save their kingdom from a fiery end... but dragons aren't easily controlled, and their solution may be a bigger hardship than the one they originally faced. With John Rhys-Davies.

Set during the 12th century, The Pillars of the Earth stars Ian McShane as a crafty and ambitious priest during the construction of a cathedral in England. During a dramatic struggle for power in an uncertain time in history (known as The Anarchy) the massive construction is a multifaceted symbol of power and the center of diabolical political plotting. With Matthew Macfadyen and Eddie Redmayne.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Week of November 16th

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Family Films

Robert Zemeckis brings us the newest adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol this week, using motion capture and computer animation to spin on actor into most of the major roles. Here, Jim Carrey is Ebeneezer Scrooge, but he's also the three ghosts that visit Scrooge on Christmas Eve and take him on a journey through time, learning what makes him such a Humbug during Christmas time, and what really lies within the miser's heart. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Derived from the popular animated series, M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender stars a cast of relative unknowns as the children who adventure to stop the Fire Nation from ruling the world. A young brother and sister from the Water Nation find a boy trapped in the ice and discover that his is the Avatar, a prophesied leader who will help to free the world. On DVD and Blu Ray.

A sequel to the popular kids movie, Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore catches up with the super-spy conflict between household pets as a police dog (James Marsden) and his human owner (Chris O'Donnell) are recruited by secret agent dogs to bring down the supervillain Kitty Galore (Bette Midler). Led by Butch and Diggs from the first movie, the dogs have to best a cat agent

(Christina Applegate), secure an informant pigeon (Katt Williams), and take down Kitty Galore once and for all. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Based on the character from Pixar's Cars, Mater's Tall Tales is a collection of shorts that let the rusty tow-truck Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) tell wild yarns about his past adventures. In the shorts, Mater gets to be a fire truck, a matador, a daredevil, and more as he tells the tales that make him a legend in his own mind.

Exactly what it claims to be, The Wonderful World of Kittens is all kittens, all the time. Set to music, the film is simply kittens running, playing, jumping and frolicking.

Relating

Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and Laser (Josh Hutcherson) have been raised by their moms, the stern and powerful Nic (Annette Benning) and the softer more artistic Jules (Julianne Moore). Before she goes off to school, Joni seeks out her "father," a free-wheeling bachelor (Mark Ruffalo)

who donated to a sperm bank eighteen years ago, in Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right. Though the kids are glad to meet him, involving him in their family causes unexpected consequences for everyone involved. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Sophie Marceau is renown for writing biographies in Don't Look Back, but she wants to novelize her childhood in order to recapture a time she can't recall: she has no memory of her life before she was was eight years old. When she begins to change, both mentally and physically, into a new version of herself (Monica Bellucci), and no one can see these changes but her, she has to travel back to her childhood home to search for answers.

Outspoken and Opinionated

Louis (Paul Dano) moves to New York City and ends up living with a colorful and wildly over-the-top male escort in The Extra Man. Henry (Kevin Kline), his new roommate, is a collection of strange opinions on life, literature, and women, all of which seem contrary to his job as an "Extra Man," escorting wealthy women to social engagements... when he takes Louis with him on these assignments, they always seem to end in buffoonery and slapstick. With John C. Reilly and Katie Holmes.

Jack Rebney, known across the internet as the agitated and foul mouthed spokesman from Winnebago advertisement outtakes, is the subject of the documentary Winnebago Man. As the film looks into Rebney's past and gets to know its subject, it explores who he is, why he's known as "The Angriest Man On Earth," and how his flowery and inventively profane language have made him a cult hero.

Set in 1912, the crotchety and argumentative Seth (Richard Dreyfuss) takes on an amnesiac lodger calling himself John Brown (Tom Wisdom) in The Lightkeepers. Though they bicker constantly, they agree on one thing: they don't want or need women around... especially since they can't seem to find any. When Blythe Danner and Mamie Gummer show up in their lives, they're suddenly at odds with their declarations.

From the Weird

"Your body smells rank and you've got no sense of delicacy, so I'd been worried you were unpopular with the ladies. Well, I gotta go concentrate on making these bombs."

The newest film from the director of Machine Girl, Robogeisha continues his tradition of hysterically over-the-top gore combined with the most overly earnest melodrama this side of Ed Wood. Centering on sisters who have dreamt of being geisha since they were little girls, the movie follows their recruitment into a society of female assassins and their modification into cybernetically enhanced super-soldiers. They are supposed to kill terrorists... but are they on the side of good or evil?

Harmony Korine returns to form in the bizarrely non-sequitur Trash Humpers, a lo-fi experiment that combines images of violence, poetry, vandalism, manifestos, and deviant performance art that is closest in tone to Korine's own Gummo.

When his Grandma (Loretta Devine) sends Kevin (Bow Wow) out to buy a Lottery Ticket, he finds himself in a tricky situation. Holding a winning ticket worth millions, Kevin needs the help of his friends (Brandon T. Jackson and Naturi Naughton) to avoid the neighborhood bully (Gbenga Akinnagbe) and survive the three day weekend until he can cash in the ticket and secure his Grandma's future.

This week's only addition to our TV New Releases is the 6th season of the CBS procedural CSI: NY, rejoining the ex-marine Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise) and his team, including Carmine Giovinazzo, Hill Harper, and Eddie Cahill.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Scott Pilgrim vs The World Review

Scott Pilgrim vs the World Review

At a time when we are bombarded with handheld camera moves and quick draw editing, few directors seem up to the challenge of taking hold of the camera to compose a shot or two. Near the top of that short list is British director Edgar Wright. Wright got his start in directing television, most notably the entire fourteen episode run of the BBC sitcom “Spaced”. Based on the loose premise of two people pretending to be a couple in order to rent a flat, the show was very stylized considering the relatively low budget.

The show was co-written by Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson who stared in the show as well, although Wright played a significant hand in the creation and writing process. The show was heavy with homages of films, television, and pop-culture. characters and story, which would become a hallmark of Wright’s style.

While working with Pegg on the show, they collaborated together on Wrights first feature film, Shaun of the Dead. The film was a buddy comedy sendup of zombie films. They collaborated yet again on Hot Fuzz, a tongue in cheek love-letter to buddy cop movies like Lethal Weapon and Bad Boys. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is Wright’s first outing without Pegg, which left many curious of his ability to sustain the energy and charm of his previous works without his right hand man. This would also be his first time adapting a someone else's work. The film is based on the six book volume series about the title character Scott Pilgrim.

Opening with an 8-bit style Universal Studios logo, the film makes it obvious that the world that the characters will inhabit is a hyperreal one. No time is wasted selling the style of the film to the audience, and for good reason. Running just under two hours, there are only a few real moments to rest as the film zooms through all six book story arc of Scott Pilgrim (Played by Michael Cera) and his journey to defeat the 7 evil exes of his new girlfriend Ramona Flowers (Played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead).

This is by far the best utilization of Michael Cera awkward disposition since Arrested Development. That’s not to say that this is just like every other role Cera has played. As a matter of fact, I think this is his most versatile role to date. Scott isn’t a terribly sympathetic character for the majority of this film. He’s self loathing, self centered, and fairly apathetic to anything outside of himself.

It’s that kind of quality in a protagonist that makes it more interesting than the standard rom-com variety that has clear and uninteresting external obstacles, but doesn’t have much emotionally at stake. As Scott fights each of the 7 evil exes, each fight has a very specific style and purpose in helping Scott learn more about himself and what he needs to succeed. Scott’s journey hits all the emotional beats of Say Anything and the action (and style) beats of Kill Bill.

There is so much going on in this film, that many have criticized it as suffering from ADD, but looking at the lush sets and the obvious attention to detail I’d say that Wright wanted the film to reflect the pace and style of the characters. They’re young, full of energy, and heavily tied to their pop-culture. The very style of the film is a character, complete with voice over (by Bill Hader).

The most important attribute that the film has is that the film is still grounded in a sincere way that is true and honest to the characters, and geographical setting of the film. These aren’t dreamy people living outside of their means in some big expensive apartment. These are strange looking twenty-somethings, struggling to get by, dealing with problems true to their age. And it is that which makes this film able to resonate with those who may not catch every little video game reference. Edgar Wright has proved that characters and story are still most important, even when given a lush budget.

David

Week of November 9th

Keeping up with Ramona

Still reeling from a bad break-up, Scott Pilgrim's (Michael Cera) dating a high school girl and living in an apartment so small he has to share a bed with his roommate in Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. When he meets Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), the girl of his dreams (or at least the girl who uses a subspace portal that happens to pass through Scott's head), he loses interest in everything else, including playing bass in Sex Bob-omb (with Mark Webber and Alison Pill) as they compete in a battle of the bands. In order to date Ramona, he has to defeat her Seven Evil Ex's, including a skateboarder-turned-actor (Chris Evans) and a rival bassist (Brandon Routh) with vegan superpowers. Adapted from the popular series of comics, Scott's battles straddle the lines of Hong Kong cinema, anime, and video games, stretching reality to its 8-bit breaking point. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Adapted from a popular series of books, Ramona and Beezus is told from Ramona's (Joey King) point of view. Ramona is a nine-year-old with an overactive imagination and an incredible talent for mischief, and her plans to save her home after her father (John Corbett) gets laid off end up costing more than they save. Though she sees her struggles as epic adventures, her big sister (Selena Gomez), mother (Bridget Moynahan) and favorite aunt (Ginnifer Goodwin) usually have to bring her back down to earth and clean up her messes. With Josh Duhamel. On DVD and Blu Ray.

A group of childhood friends reunite in Grown Ups, determined to fulfill a 30-year-old promise to live life to the fullest. Though they've all grown up and settled into their adult lives, Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, and Rob Schneider gather for a 4th of July weekend and embrace their inner children... but their weekend of immature behavior and comic misadventures has an impact on their adult lives, too. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Based around four families in the Bronx and Harlem, The Lottery is a documentary about education reform filmed during the months leading up to the lottery that will select students for a prestigious New York charter school. The film follows the families that hope for a chance at a prestigious school, as well as interviews teachers and politicians regarding the education crisis and its possible solutions.

Dealing with the death of their son, an unnamed husband and wife retreat to a remote cabin the woods in Lars von Trier's Antichrist.

As He (Willem Dafoe) attempts to use his experience as a psychotherapist to help his wife, She (Charlotte Gainsbourg) becomes more unstable and manic as strange occurrences befall the cabin, and their experiences begin to explore guilt, evil, and misogyny while the situation becomes more unstable and violent.

Based on the true story of the U.S.'s first legal brothel in the 1970s, Love Ranch stars Helen Mirren as the madame who runs the ranch and Joe Pesci as her dreamer husband whose latest investment, an Argentinean prize fighter, throws their unorthodox lives out of balance. As they try to survive infidelity amidst big money deals and legalized prostitution, they both begin to come to terms with their real desires.

Martin Landau is a lonely man as Christmas approaches in Lovely, Still, but returns to his home and finds a stranger (Ellen Burstyn) there. What begins as an awkward encounter begins a series of dates that begins the happiest time of his life, as he experiences his first love late in life. With Adam Scott and Elizabeth Banks.

Zac Efron is Charlie St. Cloud, a talented sailor who lets his promising future pass him by, feeling guilty about the death of his little brother (Charlie Tahan). Years later, when his soul mate (Amanda Crew) is lost during a storm, Charlie has to return to the sea... though he had barely been on a boat since his brother's death. With the help of Augustus Prew and Donal Logue, he has to face his fears, take control of his life, and rescue the girl.

New this week to Reckless Video's TV New Releases are the third seasons of the animated racial satire The Boondocks, the most successful death metal band of all time: Metalocalypse, the ribald Showtime drama Californication, and the light hearted British procedural Pie in the Sky.

Also new is the 5th season of Doctor Who, which introduces a new Doctor (the 11th Doctor), as well as the 2nd season of the procedural Lie to Me and the debut season of Men of a Certain Age.

Finally, we have Volume 19 of Mystery Science Theater 3000, offering robots and riffs against the B-movie horror and science fiction films Devil Fish, Devil Doll, Ed Wood's Bride of the Monster, and Robot Monster.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Week of November 2nd

Growing up and moving on

David's Toy Story 3 Review

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With Andy grown up and heading to college, there's no room in his life for the toys he loved when he was small in Pixar's Toy Story 3. The toys hope they'll be put in the attic and played with once Andy has kids of his own, but a mix-up sends Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) and the gang to a day care center. Welcomed by a stuffed bear (Ned Beatty) and a Ken doll (Michael Keaton), the toys are excited to play with kids again, but the day care may not be all it seems, and they have one more epic adventure ahead of them. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Following Band of Brothers, the HBO mini-series The Pacific focuses on the US actions in the Pacific Theater during World War II, telling stories of US Marines and their battles throughout the region, from Guadalcanal to Okinawa to Iwo Jima. Over the course of 10 episodes and epic scope, the series keeps up with the cocky and rouguish Robert Leckie (James Badge Dale), the Medal of Honor winning John Basilone (Jon Seda), and the driven Eugene Sledge (Joseph Mazzello) as they struggle to survive an unglamorized and hellish war.

On DVD and Blu Ray.

Roman Centurion Quintus Dias (Michael Fassbender) is the only survivor of a Pict raid on his outpost in Neil Marshall's Centurion. Determined to wipe out the hordes that haunt the north or what would become the British Isles, Dias guides General Titus Flavius Virilus (Dominic West) and the legendary 9th Legion into battle, only to have the legion destroyed, the general captured, and himself isolated in Pict territory. Hunted by an unstoppable tracker (Ogla Kurylenko), Diaz has to lead the few surviving soldiers (including David Morrissey, JJ Feild, and Noel Clarke) to rescue the general and return to Roman-controlled land... but the cold and snow are formidable, wolves are on the prowl, and the the Picts are driven to ensure the 9th Legion has no survivors. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Aside from being a playful take on Hamlet, this is probably the only time you'll ever get to see Devon Aoki (who wasn't given any lines at all as the mute assassin Miho in Sin City) recite Shakespeare.

Jake Hoffman is a directionless slacker who finds himself directing an unorthodox version of Hamlet in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Undead. With a job and some pull in the theater, he gives the role of Hamlet to his best friend (Kris Lemche) and uses the part of Ophelia to win back his ex-girlfriend (Devon Aoki). Unforunately, the playwright (John Ventimiglia) is a vampire, and the show has a harder time going on when the cast is in constant danger of being eaten.

Slaughter High is an entry into the giddy and terrible horror movies that will (unintentionally) generate more laughs than screams... a must for Troll 2 fans.

A slasher film from the 80's, Slaughter High sees a prank go awry, leaving the class nerd and butt of popular kids' jokes burned and disfigured. When the pranksters (including Bond Girl Caroline Munro and Billy Hartman) reunite for their 10 year anniversary, they're the only people at their old, abandoned school. When they start dying off one by one, they find the doors locked, sitting ducks for vicious revenge.

Also new this week is a Blu Ray of Robert Wise's classic musical The Sound of Music, where free spirit Maria (Julie Andrews) is sent to be a governess for a strict and militant widower (Christopher Plummer) and his seven children. Based on the true story of the von Trap family's escape from Nazi expansion, their love of music, and coming together as a family.

Based on the 1983 miniseries, the first season of V sees aliens, led by Morena Baccarin, landing on earth and guaranteeing peace for everyone, though an FBI agent (Elizabeth Mitchell) and priest (Joel Gretsch) have their doubts... as the aliens' true nature come to light over the course of season 1, the cast is fleshed out from a veritable who's who of television actors, including Morris Chesnut and Laura Vandervoort.

Finally, the second season of Star Wars: Clone Wars continues the adventures of Jedi Knights Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor) during the years between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith as the seperatists wage war against the Galactic Republic.

[X]Neil Marshall:
Doomsday, The Descent

[X]Michael Fassbender:
Inglourious Basterds, Jonah Hex

[X]Dominic West:
Chicago, Punisher: War Zone

[X]David Morrissey:
The Red Riding Trilogy, Captain Corelli's Mandolin

[X]Noel Clarke:
Doctor Who, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead

[X]JJ Feild:
Blood: The Last Vampire, K-19: The Widowmaker

[X]Ogla Kurylenko:
Quantum of Solace, Hitman

[X]Jake Hoffman:
Liberty Heights, Click

[X]Devon Aoki:
Sin City, Mutant Chronicles

[X]John Ventimiglia:
Trees Lounge, Jesus' Son

[X]Kris Lemche:
Final Destination 3, My Little Eye

[X]Caroline Munro:
To Die For, The Spy Who Loved Me

[X]Billy Hartman:
A Touch of Frost, Highlander

[X]Robert Wise:
West Side Story, Star Trek: The Motion Picture

[X]Julie Andrews:
Unconditional Love, S.O.B.

[X]Christopher Plummer:
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Somewhere in Time

[X]Pixar:
Monsters Inc, Up

[X]Tom Hanks:
Sleepless in Seattle, Charlie Wilson's War

[X]Tim Allen:
Who Is Cletis Tout?, The Six Wives of Henry Lefay

[X]Ned Beatty:
Network, The Killer Inside Me

[X]Michael Keaton:
The Dream Team, The Merry Gentleman

[X]Joseph Mazzello:
Raising Helen, Jurassic Park

[X]James Badge Dale:
The Departed, The Black Donnellys

[X]Jon Seda:
Bad Boys II, Primal Fear

[X]Elizabeth Mitchell:
Lost, Frequency

[X]Morris Chesnut:
Ladder 49, The Game Plan

[X]Joel Gretsch:
The 4400, Shrink

[X]Laura Vandervoort:
The Lookout, Smallville

[X]Morena Baccarin:
Firefly, Stargate SG-1

[X]Matt Lanter:
Sorority Row, Disaster Movie

[X]James Arnold Taylor:
The Animatrix, TMNT

[X]Jessica Lowndes:
The Haunting of Molly Hartley, Autopsy

[X]Julianna Guill:
Friday the 13th, Fired Up!

[X]Ryan Donowho:
A Home at the End of the World, Bandslam

[X]Ana de la Reguera:
Eastbound & Down, Cop Out

[X]Joaqui Cosio:
Rudo y Cursi, Quantum of Solace

[X]Jimmy Smits:
The Believers, Lackawanna Blues

[X]Hugh O'Conor:
Botched, The Young Poisoner's Handbook

[X]Faye Dunaway:
Chinatown, The Gene Generation

[X]Michael Nyqvist:
Arn: The Knight Templar, Downloading Nancy

[X]Jesse Eisenberg:
Adventureland, The Village

[X]Justin Bartha:
National Treasure, The Hangover

[X]Danny A. Abeckaser:
You Don't Mess with the Zohan, The Education of Charlie Banks

[X]Ari Graynor:
Whip It, Mystic River

[X]Jason Fuchs:
Winter Solstice, The Hebrew Hammer

[X]DJ Qualls:
Hustle & Flow, I'm Reed Fish

[X]Nikki Reed:
Twilight, American Gun

[X]William Sadler:
The Shawshank Redemption, Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight

[X]Brendan Gleeson:
Green Zone, The Butcher Boy

[X]Sarah Jessica Parker:
The Family Stone, Mars Attacks!

[X]Kristin Davis:
Deck the Halls, Couples, Retreat!

[X]Cynthia Nixon:
Igby Goes Down, I Am the Cheese

[X]Kim Cattrall:
Split Second, Mannequin

[X]Andre Dussollier:
Tell No One, Dark Portals

[X]Sabine Azema:
Not on the Lips, Sunday in the Country

[X]Emmanuelle Devos:
Coco Before Chanel, The Beat That My Heart Skipped

[X]Mathieu Amalric:
La Moustache, Quantum of Solace

[X]Jennifer Lawrence:
The Burning Plain, Garden Party

[X]John Hawkes:
Small Town Saturday Night, Deadwood

[X]Dale Dickey:
The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love, Princess Protection Program

[X]Garret Dillahunt:
The Last House on the Left, No Country for Old Men

[X]Barry Levinson:
Man of the Year, Envy

[X]Al Pacino:
Scent of a Woman, 88 Minutes

[X]Brenda Vaccaro:
The Mirror Has Two Faces, Capricorn One

[X]Susan Sarandon:
Stepmom, Solitary Man

[X]John Goodman:
In the Electric Mist, Storytelling

Toy Story 3 Review

When Toy Story came out in 1995, I was 9 years old. For the sake of full disclosure, when the film ended I really did believe that toys came alive when I left the room. This of course led to a series of elaborate schemes in which I intended to catch the toys in the act. As you would expect, they never moved from where I had left them. It’s not that I was an incredibly gullible child. I just wanted to have friends like Woody and Buzz.

So when Toy Story 2 came out four years later, I was excited to see the characters that I fell in love with go through another adventure, and to my surprise, I ended up enjoying the film, in some way more than the original. However, when I heard that they were going to be making a third film, I was worried Pixar would make a film similar to Cars (my least favorite film put out by the studio). After over a decade of absence, would these characters come off honest and true to their previous incarnations?

Looking back on the films, I see now that each of them are about how we build relationships with others and how they evolve over time as we grow older. That theme is the centerpiece of Toy Story 3. Andy is grown up and is about to head off to college. His days of playing with the toys are long behind him. The toys are desperate for attention, and are fearful that they may meet a fate worse than death, being thrown away.
I’ll skip a plot summary, as the film is fast paced enough that I’d be going into spoiler territory by the second paragraph. Instead, I’ll delve into what I think this film did well at, and where I think it’s flaws lay.

The film is beautiful in every sense of the word. The toys, scenery, and people have never looked better. One fear I had was that the characters would look too good, but Pixar seemed to find a way to improve on the look of the characters while still keeping them close to their original design. The attention to detail in every room that the toys enter is enough to keep you busy for hours with your Blu Ray remote. Little in jokes, references to prior films, and subtle things like dust bunnies under the bed are one of the hallmarks of Pixar films.

Visual continuity is one thing, but it can fall completely flat if the characters are emotionally drawn differently.

Unexplained changes in character can cause an audience to feel detached from the film. This is something seen very often in sequels, especially by the third installment. I’ve seen this film three times now, and it had me tearing up at the same points each time. The film hits emotional beats that are very fitting to the characters, and the overall story arc of the three films.

Watched in sequence, all three films seem to compliment each other just right. Visual motifs and call backs to prior films that fit in just right, make this trilogy one of the best in film history. (Considering Coppola lost it after Godfather 2, that’s saying something)

What didn’t I like? Well the antagonist in this film seemed a bit too reminiscent of the one in Toy Story 2. While I understand the purpose he serves within the narrative, I just felt like they could have changed things up a bit. Also as I stated before, the film is very fast paced, and there were a few instances where I would have liked the film to slow down a bit so I could rest after a big action scene. These are mostly nitpicks though. Overall if you’ve followed the toys this far, finish your journey with them.

David

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Week of October 26th

content is best viewed at RecklessVideo.com

Detectives, Dealers, Traffickers, and Kidnappers

Seventeen year-old Ree (Jennifer Lawrence) has to take care of her immobile mother and younger siblings in The Sundance Award winning Winter's Bone when her family is threatened. They will be made homeless unless she can find her absentee father, who's put their house up as bond until his trial-- traveling the back roads of the insular Ozark hills, Ree has to become a detective and follow leads through her extended family and back woods clans, never knowing who to trust, but forced to navigate dangerous rivalries, methamphetamine cooks and dealers, bail bondsmen, and family members who may or may not be her enemies. With John Hawkes, Dale Dickey, and Garret Dillahunt. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Police captain Blanca Bravo (Ana de la Reguera) is working to solve a series of murders in the border town of Juarez, Mexico in Backyard. As more and more young women are found dead in the desert, Bravo finds the town has become indifferent to the long-running murders, and she is Jaurez's first captain to keep looking for answers... while the rest of the town sees girls disappearing from near by factories as everyday life. With Joaqui Cosio and Jimmy Smits.

The sequel to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire follows an investigation into human trafficking and prostitution in Sweden. Millennium magazine is working on the story, but when all of their leads turn up dead, only Millennium journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) refuses to believe that dragon tattooed Lisbeth is the killer. As Mikael tries to solve the mystery, Lisbeth

is nowhere to be found, but they both must discover the secrets of the Swedish sex trade and the people who would kill to protect them. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Living a sheltered life in his Hasidic community, Sam (Jesse Eisenberg) agrees to help his friend Yosef (Justin Bartha) fly "medicine" overseas in Holy Rollers, based on a true story. As it turns out, Yosef uses Sam as a drug mule because he assumes that no one will search a polite young man in traditional Hasidic dress, and while his plan works, Sam is slowly entangled in questionable work with dangerous men. With Danny A. Abeckaser, Ari Graynor, and Jason Fuchs.

Pushed to the breaking point by a world that gives him no respect, a part-time janitor (DJ Qualls) at a fast food restaurant buys a gun and plans to take his revenge on the Last Day of Summer. Instead of taking revenge on his bully of a boss (William Sadler), he loses control and takes a young woman hostage (Nikki Reed). Now trapped in a situation he never accounted for, he has to deal with his hostage and try to keep her out of the way if he's ever going to fulfil his violent plans.

Comeback

Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda reunite for Sex & the City 2, which sends the four friends from New York to the Middle East seeking adventure, since Carrie's marriage has settled down, Miranda has quit her job, Charlotte's kids are a handful... but Samantha has a job offer that takes them all to Abu Dhabi. Sex & the City 2 offers everything from culture clash comedy in the middle east to the origin of how the four women met and became friends, on DVD and Blu Ray.

Mythology

Young Brendan is learning from his uncle (Brendan Gleeson), an abbot in 9th century Ireland, in the Oscar-winning animated Secret of the Kells. Brendan becomes fascinated by the Book of the Kells, and has to adventure into a forbidden forest to help finish the book, where he's introduced to faeries and spirits that change his world forever. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Monsters

A movie told from the zombie's perspective, the low-budget Colin sees young Colin bitten in the beginning and follows him through London as the town is overtaken by zombies like himself. As Colin wanders the streets, at first avoiding conflict, he's a witness to the zombie rampage even as he slowly becomes a part of it, and the repercussions he has on his family.

Johnny "Flick" Taylor (Hugh O'Conor) is a socially awkward Teddy Boy in 1950's England who dies after a violent encounter at a dance, but returns from the grave 50 years later in Flick. As Flick, animated by the power of rockabilly radio, searches for the girl he never got to dance with, the enemies that tormented him in his youth start turning up dead, and a one-armed detective (Faye Dunaway) from Memphis is on his trail, but can't quite accept that her suspect might have risen from the grave.

Jessica Lowndes has just gotten her pilot's license and takes a group of friends (including Julianna Guill and Ryan Donowho) out for a weekend getaway in Altitude when the plane starts behaving strangely. What at first seem to be instrument malfunctions could be something more unbelievable as the group struggles to survive in a plane they can't land, pursued by something that can't exist.

Al Pacino is controversial doctor Jack Kevorkian in Barry Levinson's You Don't Know Jack, living in his friend's (John Goodman) storeroom when he develops the idea of providing a doctor assisted, painless end for suffering terminal patients. Working with his sister (Brenda Vaccaro), Kevorkian's journey sees him though his first death, controversy, arrest, and trial. With Susan Sarandon.

A single dentist (Sabine Azema) and a married, unemployed man (Andre Dussollier) with a secret meet by chance in the French Wild Grass. At first they're awkward, and not sure how to respond to one another, but their interaction starts to overwhelm their lives and everyone in it. With Emmanuelle Devos and Mathieu Amalric.

New this week to Reckless Video's TV New Releases are the first half of season 4 of Cartoon Network's adventure comedy The Venture Brothers and Cartoon Network's Freaknik: The Musical, as well as season 8 of the procedural CSI: Miami.

[X]Jessica Lowndes:
The Haunting of Molly Hartley, Autopsy

[X]Julianna Guill:
Friday the 13th, Fired Up!

[X]Ryan Donowho:
A Home at the End of the World, Bandslam

[X]Ana de la Reguera:
Eastbound & Down, Cop Out

[X]Joaqui Cosio:
Rudo y Cursi, Quantum of Solace

[X]Jimmy Smits:
The Believers, Lackawanna Blues

[X]Hugh O'Conor:
Botched, The Young Poisoner's Handbook

[X]Faye Dunaway:
Chinatown, The Gene Generation

[X]Michael Nyqvist:
Arn: The Knight Templar, Downloading Nancy

[X]Jesse Eisenberg:
Adventureland, The Village

[X]Justin Bartha:
National Treasure, The Hangover

[X]Danny A. Abeckaser:
You Don't Mess with the Zohan, The Education of Charlie Banks

[X]Ari Graynor:
Whip It, Mystic River

[X]Jason Fuchs:
Winter Solstice, The Hebrew Hammer

[X]DJ Qualls:
Hustle & Flow, I'm Reed Fish

[X]Nikki Reed:
Twilight, American Gun

[X]William Sadler:
The Shawshank Redemption, Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight

[X]Brendan Gleeson:
Green Zone, The Butcher Boy

[X]Sarah Jessica Parker:
The Family Stone, Mars Attacks!

[X]Kristin Davis:
Deck the Halls, Couples, Retreat!

[X]Cynthia Nixon:
Igby Goes Down, I Am the Cheese

[X]Kim Cattrall:
Split Second, Mannequin

[X]Andre Dussollier:
Tell No One, Dark Portals

[X]Sabine Azema:
Not on the Lips, Sunday in the Country

[X]Emmanuelle Devos:
Coco Before Chanel, The Beat That My Heart Skipped

[X]Mathieu Amalric:
La Moustache, Quantum of Solace

[X]Jennifer Lawrence:
The Burning Plain, Garden Party

[X]John Hawkes:
Small Town Saturday Night, Deadwood

[X]Dale Dickey:
The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love, Princess Protection Program

[X]Garret Dillahunt:
The Last House on the Left, No Country for Old Men

[X]Barry Levinson:
Man of the Year, Envy

[X]Al Pacino:
Scent of a Woman, 88 Minutes

[X]Brenda Vaccaro:
The Mirror Has Two Faces, Capricorn One

[X]Susan Sarandon:
Stepmom, Solitary Man

[X]John Goodman:
In the Electric Mist, Storytelling