Week of March 16th

Disney (et al)

The Princess and the Frog is Disney's newest offering, starring Anika Noni Rose as a waitress working two jobs in New Orleans, hoping to save enough money to open her own restaurant. Her life takes an unexpected turn when she meets a prince (Bruno Campos) who ran afoul of a voodoo priest (Keith David) and has been turned into a frog. Any girl who knows anything about fairytales knows how to handle a frog prince... but the world isn't a storybook, and she might have a harder time dealing with princes and spells than she thought. On DVD and Blu Ray.

In the sleek and shiny future, a scientist (Nicolas Cage) rebuilds his lost son as a robot in Astro Boy. The young and innocent robot (Freddie Highmore) ends up on an adventure away from his father/creator, meeting a group of orphans and being taken in by their Fagin-like father figure (Nathan Lane). Astro's new family has a lot of use for a powerful (and naive) robot, but so does the military, who wants Astro's power and technology. With Bill Nighy.

Providing the first use of the word "tweenertainment" on the Reckless Video website, Bandslam follows Will (Gaelan Connell), an awkward teen, to New Jersey when his mom (Lisa Kudrow) relocates for a new job. With a fresh start in a new school, he befriends a standoffish bookworm but is fascinated by Vanessa Hudgens, an ex-cheerleader who's fronting a rock band with a lot to learn. Now Will has to keep his friendships alive while "managing" the band, getting them to win the school's battle-of-the-bands: Bandslam.

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Nimrod Antal's Armored finds Iraq veteran Ty (Columbus Short) a new job at an armored car company, teaming up with seasoned veteran Mike (Matt Dillon) transporting huge sums of money. Ty goes along with Mike's plan to rob their own truck until something goes wrong, and Ty locks himself in the car... with the money. Now Mike has to break into their own armored car and handle the Ty situation, along with his team, including the professional Jean Reno, the trigger-happy Laurence Fishburn, the morally troubled Amaury Nolasco, and the skittish Skeet Ulrich. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Korean pop star Rain is a rogue ninja in Ninja Assassin, defying his master (Sho Kosugi) and fighting against the assassins that he once considered family. He teams up with a Europol agent (Naomie Harris) and helps her uncover the secret clan behind unsolvable political assassinations, against the will of her boss (Ben Miles). The hyper-violent battle between good and evil that ensues plays almost like an American version of Japanese splatter films like Machine Girl and Tokyo Gore Police.

A group of junkies try to pull off a new kind of heist in 1983 in High Life: they'll pose as repair men and rob an ATM. Led by Timothy Olyphant, the team of the thuggish Stephen McIntyre, the charming Rossif Sutherland, and the tech savvy Joe Anderson try to pull off a precision heist, but their volatile mix of conflicting personalities and controlled substances make them less than reliable.

Expanding on the idea of movies like Cloverfield and The Blair Witch Project (incorporating "real" footage), The Fourth Kind stars Milla Jovovich as a doctor in therapy with Elias Koteas, trying to remember the details surrounding her husband's death. Living in Nome, Alaska, she begins to investigate other cases of memory loss, and though the local sheriff (Will Patton) questions her judgment and her sanity, she starts to suspect that her interviewees may have been victims of alien abduction.

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Reuniting director Pedro Almodovar with actress Penelope Cruz, Broken Embraces combines the style of classic film noir with Almodovar's signature, colorful look. Using flashbacks, the film bounces between present day and the early 90's, narrated by the blind writer who exists in the center of a story of love, jealousy, lust for power, and guilt.

Julianne Nicholson is a graduate student interviewing a series of subjects in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, John Krasinski's directorial debut. Splitting time between her interviews (including Timothy Hutton, Corey Stoll, and Chris Messina) and the life outside her thesis project, her experience with the men in her life becomes colored by her recent breakup.

Set over several months in the French capital, Paris intertwines the stories of Romain Duris, a dancer in need of a heart transplant, Juliette Binoche, a social worker and single mother, Fabrice Luchini, an academic and expert on the history of Paris, Albert Dupontel, a motorcycle enthusiast and market vendor, Melanie Laurent, a student who begins receiving mysterious messages, and many more players. As each of their stories unfold, they color the details of the other characters' stories, eventually fleshing out the complete story.

Matthew Broderick is the world's unhappiest man in Wonderful World: a former children's folk singer who seems to hate everyone. When his only friend, his Senegalese roommate Ibou (Michael K. Williams), takes ill and Ibou's sister (Sanaa Lathan) shows up to help out, the apartment is strangely less negative, and could change all of their lives.

Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker are an estranged New York power couple in Did You Hear about the Morgans?, but when they witness a murder, the two of them are sent into the Witness Protection Program... which will keep them safe from the killer, but not from each other. Moved to Wyoming and taken in by Sam Elliott and Mary Steenburgen, they're strangers in a strange land of rodeos and small town values, but time together might remind them of why they were together in the first place.

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New this week to Reckless Video's TV New Releases are the 2nd Season of Breaking Bad, the 8th Season of the OCD PI procedural Monk, BBC's Wild China, and the 17th collection of Mystery Science Theater 3000, with The Crawling Eye, The Beatniks, Blood Waters of Dr. Z, and The Final Sacrifice (featuring the legendary Zap Rowsdower).

[X]Nimrod Antal:
Kontroll, Vacancy

[X]Matt Dillon:
Albino Alligator, Old Dogs

[X]Jean Reno:
The Da Vinci Code, The Professional

[X]Laurence Fishburn:
The Matrix, Apocalypse Now

[X]Amaury Nolasco:
Prison Break, 2 Fast 2 Furious

[X]Skeet Ulrich:
As Good As It Gets, Scream

[X]Columbus Short:
Quarantine, This Christmas

[X]Nicolas Cage:
The Wicker Man, Raising Arizona

[X]Freddie Highmore:
August Rush, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

[X]Nathan Lane:
The Producers, Nicholas Nickleby

[X]Bill Nighy:
The Girl in the Cafe, Valkyrie

[X]Gaelan Connell:
A Dirty Shame, Chocolat

[X]Vanessa Hudgens:
High School Musical, Thirteen

[X]Lisa Kudrow:
Friends, The Opposite of Sex

[X]John Krasinski:
The Office, Away We Go

[X]Julianne Nicholson:
Kinsey, Puccini for Beginners

[X]Timothy Hutton:
Taps, Serious Moonlight

[X]Corey Stoll:
Lucky Number Slevin, Push

[X]Chris Messina:
Ira & Abby, Julie & Julia

[X]Pedro Almodovar:
Matador, Volver

[X]Penelope Cruz:
Open Your Eyes, Elegy

[X]Hugh Grant:
Nine Months, About a Boy

[X]Sarah Jessica Parker:
The Family Stone, Sex and the City

[X]Sam Elliott:
Road House, We Were Soldiers

[X]Mary Steenburgen:
The Proposal, Elf

[X]Milla Jovovich:
Dazed and Confused, A Perfect Getaway

[X]Will Patton:
After Hours, Wendy & Lucy

[X]Elias Koteas:
Cyborg 2, Shooter

[X]Timothy Olyphant:
Deadwood, Catch and Release

[X]Stephen McIntyre:
The Lookout, High Noon

[X]Rossif Sutherland:
I'm Reed Fish, ER

[X]Joe Anderson:
Becoming Jane, Amelia

[X]Rain:
Speed Racer

[X]Sho Kosugi:
Blind Fury

[X]Naomie Harris:
Street Kings, 28 Days Later

[X]Ben Miles:
V for Vendetta, The Affair of the Necklace

[X]Juliette Binoche:
The English Patient, Dan in Real Life

[X]Romain Duris:
Moliere, L'auberge Espangole

[X]Fabrice Luchini:
On Guard, Intimate Strangers

[X]Albert Dupontel:
A Very Long Engagement, Chrysalis

[X]Melanie Laurent:
Days of Glory, Inglorious Basterds

[X]Anika Noni Rose:
Dreamgirls, No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency

[X]Bruno Campos:
Dopamine, Nip/Tuck

[X]Keith David:
They Live, Agent Cody Banks

[X]Matthew Broderick:
Finding Amanda, Ladyhawke

[X]Michael K. Williams:
Gone Baby Gone, Lackawanna Blues

[X]Sanaa Lathan:
Alien Vs Predator, The Family That Preys