Week of March 2nd

Not just kids stuff

Ponyo is Hayao Miyazaki's newest film, about a fish-girl who escapes her father's underwater castle to see more of the world... discovering humans and making friends. When her father finds her and takes her home, she's changed: she wishes she was human, and she wants to be called Ponyo, the name her human friend gave her... so Ponyo begins the kind of quest that only Miyazaki can film, beautifully animated, and full of magic, innocence and wonder. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Spike Jonze's first PG-rated movie is Where the Wild Things Are, adapted from the beloved children's book, about an angry boy named Max. Though he occasionally acts out, Max becomes a "wild thing" when his mother (Catherine Keener) won't play with him, and sails away to an island where he can be king of the wild things. The creatures of the island have a lot in common with the 9-year-old, including the tantrum prone Carol (James Gandolfini) and the easily bullied Alexander (Paul Dano), but an island that can have a wild rumpus can be a scary place for a boy, too. With Mark Ruffalo, Catherine O'Hara, Forest Whitaker, and Chris Cooper. On DVD and Blu Ray.

The sequel to the 2006 animated movie, Curious George 2: Follow That Monkey continues George's story as he befriends Kayla, a baby elephant in a circus. George and The Man In The Yellow Hat travel across the country as they try and reunite Kayla with her family in California.

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The Ultimate Disaster

Roland Emmerich satisfies his penchant for destroying landmarks by wiping out the entire planet in 2012. When a geologist (Chiwetel Ejiofor) uncovers a phenomenon that will destroy the world with storms and floods, the governments begin working on a solution, but the public is kept in the dark. John Cusack is camping with his children when he meets a conspiracy theorist (Woody Harrelson) who tells him the end is nigh: now he has to get his ex-wife (Amanda Peet) and race to safety as the world falls apart, slowly at first, and then in a series of epic disasters. With Oliver Platt. On DVD and Blu Ray.

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Drama

After years settled down as a housewife, Pippa (Robin Wright Penn) begins to buckle under her suburban life with her aging husband (Alan Arkin) in The Private Lives of Pippa Lee. Showing her past as she leaves her dysfunctional family (Tom Guinee and Maria Bello) to move in with her aunt (Robin Weigert) and her aunt's girlfriend (Julianne Moore) who exposes her to an uninhibited, darker world... a past that colors her present, which collides with younger, even more dysfunctional members of her new life. With Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder. On DVD and Blu Ray.

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Comedy

Jared Hess's Gentlemen Broncos stars Michael Angarano as a teenage novelist who attends a writer's convention, only to have his story stolen by a legendary science fiction writer (Jermaine Clement) who has run out of ideas. As the wronged unknown fights against the famous writer, the hero (Sam Rockwell) of their stories shifts between their realities, eventually being adapted into a zero-budget film.

Loosely adapted from the anecdotal book, I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell stars Jesse Bradford and Matt Czuchry as a pair of unrestrained friends who crash a bachelor party. They shanghai the groom (Geoff Stults) and launch a night of wild debauchery... and they attempt to make up for destroying the wedding by providing a series of sex-comedy romp antics.

Playing over-the-top with another exploitation genre, Bitch Slap aims to do for the "girls with guns" rebel fugitives what Black Dynamite did for blaxploitation. With a setup that would make Russ Meyer proud, Bitch Slap offers up girls, guns, violence, skin, and an over-the-top scheme that might leave reality behind altogether.

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New this week to Reckless Video's TV New Releases are the first three seasons of the comedy-procedural Psych and the 2nd series of BBC's Pie in the Sky. We also have the SyFy miniseries Alice, a twist on the Wonderland mythology where 150 years have passed since Alice last visited the kingdom.

[X]Caterina Scorsone:
The Third Miracle, Rated X

[X]Andrew Lee Pots:
Primeval, 1408

[X]Harry Dean Stanton:
Repo Man, Big Love

[X]Kathy Bates:
Fried Green Tomatoes, Revolutionary Road

[X]Jared Hess:
Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre

[X]Michael Angarano:
The Forbidden Kingdom, Sky High

[X]Jermaine Clement:
Flight of the Conchords, Eagle vs Shark

[X]Sam Rockwell:
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

[X]Jesse Bradford:
Swimfan, Flags of Our Fathers

[X]Matt Czuchry:
Eight Legged Freaks, Gilmore Girls

[X]Geoff Stults:
Wedding Crashers, The Express

[X]Hayao Miyazaki:
Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke

[X]Robin Wright Penn:
How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog, State of Play

[X]Tom Guinee:
Ladder 49, Iron Man

[X]Maria Bello:
The Dark, Downloading Nancy

[X]Robin Weigert:
Things We Lost in The Fire, Deadwood

[X]Julianne Moore:
The Shipping News, I'm Not There

[X]Alan Arkin:
Thirteen Conversations about One Thing, Sunshine Cleaning

[X]Keanu Reeves:
The Replacements, A Scanner Darkly

[X]Winona Ryder:
The Informers, Edward Scissorhands

[X]Roland Emmerich:
The Day After Tomorrow, 10,000 BC

[X]John Cusack:
Must Love Dogs, The Grifters

[X]Amanda Peet:
Identity, Changing Lanes

[X]Chiwetel Ejiofor:
Children of Men, Endgame

[X]Oliver Platt:
Gun Shy, Frost/Nixon

[X]Woody Harrelson:
No Country for Old Men, Zombieland

[X]Spike Jonze:
Adaptation, Being John Malkovich

[X]Catherine Keener:
Hamlet 2, Death to Smoochy

[X]Mark Ruffalo:
The Brothers Bloom, 13 Going on 30

[X]James Gandolfini:
8MM, The Sopranos

[X]Paul Dano:
Little Miss Sunshine, There Will Be Blood

[X]Catherine O'Hara:
Waiting for Guffman, Away We Go

[X]Forest Whitaker:
Panic Room, The Great Debaters

[X]Chris Cooper:
Syriana, Breach