Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Perfect List for TV

With summer coming, it is time to dive into the TV section again. Reckless Video’s TV on DVD offers the perfect wind down after a day in the sun, and since the networks are mostly re-runs in the summer, this is a chance to get back into the shows that you have enjoyed before or try something you might have missed.

The crew here at Reckless has each compiled their top ten TV shows for you to peruse.

Since our opinions are not the only ones to listen to, we are going to compile a “perfect list” of sorts for TV.  To do this, we need you to submit your top ten favorite TV shows. We will be drawing one entry to win a Summer Pass. (contest ends May 27th)

With the Summer Pass, which begins May 28th and runs to Sept 1st, you can rent up to 3 movies at a time. The pass includes all movies except new releases, but that opens up about 17,000 movies and TV shows for you to explore. Summer Passes are available 96 days and costs $99.

Week of April 27th

Imagination

Doctor Parnassus (Christopher Plummer), his daughter (Lily Cole), and the rest of the performers in his traveling show (Andrew Garfield and Verne Troyer) try to bring wonder into normal peoples' day to day lives in Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, but the doctor has a tangled past... he's over a thousand years old, and won his immortality in a bet with the Devil (Tom Waits).

Parnassus and the Devil have been making bets over the centuries, and the Doctor's most recent wager has come due: the Devil is to claim his daughter on her 16th birthday. With the deadline only a few days away, the troupe rescues an amnesiac stranger (Heath Ledger) who helps the Imaginarium's show, but his mysterious arrival comes at the same time as the Devil's new wager for the soul of Parnassus' daughter. On DVD and Blu Ray.


Meryl Streep is a successful divorcee in It's Complicated when she ends up having an affair with her ex-husband (Alec Baldwin)... but they've been divorced ten years now, both moved on, and he's now married to a younger woman (Lake Bell). Not only is she the "other woman" in this triangle, she's beginning to get to know the architect (Steve Martin) remodeling her house, and the situation of ex-husbands, affairs, kids, and dating becomes more and more complicated.

Released from prison after an IRA assassination, Liam Neeson has become a media presence, providing a warning for kids not to be brainwashed into killing in Five Minutes of Heaven, but his next TV appearance is to be a sit-down with James Nesbitt, his victim's younger brother and witness to the murder, who's lived with the consequences for 30 years... and is dreaming of revenge, not forgiveness.

The sequel to 2004's parkour/action film, District 13: Ultimatum is the newest release from Luc Besson's action brand, reuniting the officer Damien (Cyril Raffaelli) and the rogue Leito (David Belle) as they try to bring peace to the worst district in futuristic Paris... but the deck is stacked against them, as the government is set to level the entire area and give the lucrative rebuilding contract to the corrupt Harriburton company, and the two partners have to unite the gangs in District 13 and take on the government to stop the whole area from being nuked.

Recently released from prison for the killing of a small boy, Jan Thomas (Pål Sverre Valheim Hagen) has always maintained his innocence in Troubled Water. He gets a job as an organist at an Oslo church and wins the favor of the pastor and the parish with his gentle demeanor, effectively putting the past behind him until a teacher named Agnes comes to the church... and recognizes him as the man who killed her son.

When a German art critic (Ulrich Tukur) rents an apartment outside of Paris in 1914, he doesn't pay much attention to the 50-something housekeeper (Yolande Moreau) who maintains the rooms until he finds one of her paintings in Seraphine... and so begins the art career of Seraphine Louis, and the relationship between the artist, divinity, and madness that defined her life.

Joan Allen plays another famous artist in Georgia O'Keeffe, recounting her complicated life and relationship with Alfred Stieglitz (Jeremy Irons), her promoter and most stalwart supporter. The film dramatizes O'Keeffe's artistic awakening in New Mexico in the 1920s, her successes, and much of the turmoil caused by Stieglitz's actions. With Henry Simmons.
A L'aventure is the newest film by the director of The Exterminating Angels, about Sandrine, a young woman unfulfilled by her life. She quits her job and walks out of her unsatisfying relationship and departs on a journey for satisfaction... both spiritual and physical.

The sequel to 2005's subterranean horror film, The Descent: Part 2 takes place immediately after the events of the US version of the first film, as the only survivor (Shauna Macdonald) of the first expedition is held accountable for the disappearance of her friends. The local sheriff (Gavan O'Herlihy) leads a team back underground to discover why there was only one survivor, and why she was found covered in her friends' blood.


New this week to Reckless Video's TV New Release section is the first season of Star Wars' Clone Wars animated series, as well as the 5th volume of The Spectacular Spider-Man. We also have Doctor Who's The Waters of Mars, completing our collection of David Tennant's time as The Doctor, and the complete BBC series Survivors, where most of the world's population has been wiped out by a super flu.

[X]Luc Besson:
Unleashed, The Transporter
[X]Cyril Raffaelli:
Live Free or Die Hard, Kiss of the Dragon
[X]David Belle:
Babylon A.D, Femme Fatale
[X]Shauna Macdonald:
The Descent, Mutant Chronicles
[X]Gavan O'Herlihy:
Never Say Never Again, Sharpe's Eagle
[X]James Nesbitt:
Waking Ned Devine, Jekyll
[X]Liam Neeson:
Schindler's List, Taken
[X]Joan Allen:
The Ice Storm, Hachi: A Dog's Tale
[X]Jeremy Irons:
Dead Ringers, Eragon
[X]Henry Simmons:
World's Greatest Dad, Are We There Yet?
[X]Terry Gilliam:
12 Monkeys, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
[X]Christopher Plummer:
Somewhere in Time, Up
[X]Andrew Garfield:
Lions for Lambs, Boy A
[X]Verne Troyer:
Austin Powers, College
[X]Tom Waits:
Ironweed, Wristcutters: A Love Story
[X]Heath Ledger:
Monster's Ball, Brokeback Mountain
[X]Meryl Streep:
Silkwood, Fantastic Mr. Fox
[X]Steve Martin:
The Pink Panther, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
[X]Alec Baldwin:
30 Rock, State and Main
[X]Lake Bell:
I Love Your Work, Pride & Glory
[X]Yolande Moreau:
Amelie, The Beaches of Agnes
[X]Ulrich Tukur:
The Lives of Others, Solaris
[X]Pål Sverre Valheim Hagen:
House of Fools

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Week of April 20th

Flights of Fancy

Now the highest grossing film of all time and a phenomenon in theaters, James Cameron's Avatar takes place on the beautiful alien world of Pandora. Sam Worthington stars as Jake Sully, a marine who's lost the use of his legs but can use an "avatar" to blend in with the Na'Vi (Pandora's native population), running and hunting in a new body... but his role there is split between the scientist (Sigourney Weaver) who wants to use avatars to learn about the planet and its people, and the corporate administrator (Giovanni Ribisi) who wants to relocate the Na'Vi with a hired military force (led by Stephen Lang)-- they expect Jake to be a loyal Marine, gather intelligence, and help control the Na'Vi by force. His choices become more complex as he falls in love with Pandora, the Na'Vi people, and the chief's daughter (Zoe Saldana). On DVD and Blu Ray.

Colin Ford is the young Jack in Jack and the Beanstalk, in danger of failing out of fairy tale school because he hasn't done a single heroic deed. He sells his Computer of Wonder (C.O.W.) for a handful of magic beans that lead him up a beanstalk to battle a giant (James Earl Jones) and save a girl (Madison Davenport) that's been magically transformed into a harp.

Academy Awards

Jeff Bridges won a Best Actor Oscar this year for his role as aging country star Bad Blake in Crazy Heart. Playing his old hits in dive bars, Blake is usually broke and always drinking... just getting by. A blossoming romance with a single mother (Maggie Gyllenhaal) makes him try to be a better man, and even start writing songs again, and his former backing band guitarist (Colin Farrell), now a country superstar, could help Blake get the success that's always eluded him... but no one gets a name like "Bad" without earning it, and peace and redemption won't come easily to a man like Bad Blake. With Robert Duvall.

Nominated for art and make-up and winning an Academy Award for costumes, The Young Victoria stars Emily Blunt as a young Queen Victoria in the middle of political turmoil. She initially rejects Albert (Rupert Friend) and sees marriage another way for her to be controlled... but as the two truly get to know each other, their relationship deepens; when Victoria becomes queen, she realizes how much she relies on him and the two develop a legendary courtship, romance, and marriage With Paul Bettany.

Love and Danger

Set in the early 70's, Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones is the story of a 14-year-old girl (Saoirse Ronan) who is murdered by her reclusive neighbor (Stanley Tucci), and sees the aftermath of her disappearance in a dreamlike world between the living and the afterlife. As her parents (Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz) deal with her death in different, obsessive ways, she refuses to move on and leave the living behind her until the story of her murder is closed, with her family finding some kind of peace.

John (Cillian Murphy) is a small town bank employee, withdrawn and socially awkward, living alone and hoping not to be noticed or bothered in Peacock. When an accident brings his neighbors to his door, they meet his other personality, and assume "Emma" is John's reclusive wife. Once she begins to socialize, Emma starts to make an impression on the town, including the mayor's wife (Susan Sarandon), and John begins to lose control of her, as his second identity has a will of her own. With Ellen Page and Josh Lucas.

Uncertainty is a film split in half: it opens with a coin toss on the Brooklyn Bridge, and the film simultaneously unfolds the heads and tails choices, as Lynn Collins and Joseph Gordon-Levitt proceed down both paths, as one takes them through family drama and emotional turmoil in Queens and the other puts them in the way of danger and suspense in Manhattan.

A New York power couple, a web designer (Gael Garcia Bernal) and an emergency room surgeon (Michelle Williams) barely have enough time away from their jobs to connect with their lives in Mammoth. As he flies to Thailand to close a multi-million dollar deal and she spends almost all of their time in the emergency room, almost all of their contact is through the voicemails they leave one another, and their seven-year-old daughter's closest parental relationship is with her nanny.

When Ray Winstone's wife leaves him for another man, he slips into alcoholic depression in 44 Inch Chest... but his mates know exactly how to handle the situation: take brutal, violent revenge on the wife's lover. His group of aggressive, foul mouthed cohorts include Ian McShane, John Hurt, Tom Wilkinson, and Stephen Dillane, and they force him to work out his ideas of masculinity and love in the wake of incredible pain.


Foreign Fare

Olivier Assayas' Summer Hours stars Juliette Binoche, Charles Berling, and Jeremie Renier as three siblings gathering for their mother's 75th birthday-- she's just inherited a large collection of art from her brother, and with her health failing, she leaves it to her children to decide how to handle the collection, a decision that reveals a lot about their family and their relationships.

Inge is a 67 year old woman in Cloud 9, running a part time sewing business while her retired husband spends his spare hours aimlessly riding passenger trains. When she makes a delivery to another gentleman, she begins an affair she never thought she'd have, and has to wonder about the consequences to her decades of marriage.

Non-Fiction

Afghan Star is a documentary about the popular, American Idol style television show in Afghanistan. After years of totalitarian rule, voting for singers via cell phone is many Afghani's first taste of democracy, and the journey to be a contestant on the show is a higher stakes venture than its western counterparts.

Mythic Journeys is a documentary about myths and storytelling and their impact throughout many cultures across the world. The film offers both the philosophy of mythologies (by experts such as Deepak Chopra and Michael Beckwith) alongside animated myths, tales,and fables voiced by Mark Hamill, Tim Curry, and Lance Henriksen.

Focusing on an autistic boy from Texas with an affinity of animals (especially horses), The Horse Boy details his family's horseback journey through Magnolia. When none of western medicine's therapies seem to help the autistic boy, they begin long quest to find a shaman that may be able to help.

The PBS series Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years details the history of the civil rights movement from the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1954, continuing up to the mid 1980s. The 14-hour series recounts the movement chronologically, providing detailed history through the decades.


New this week to Reckless Video's TV New Releases are The End of Time, the double episode that marks the end of David Tennant's time as The Doctor on Doctor Who, and the BBC fantasy series Merlin.

[X]James Cameron:
Titanic, The Abyss
[X]Sam Worthington:
Terminator: Salvation, The Great Raid
[X]Zoe Saldana:
Star Trek, Center Stage
[X]Stephen Lang:
Manhunter, The Men Who Stare at Goats
[X]Sigourney Weaver:
Aliens, Holes
[X]Giovanni Ribisi:
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Public Enemies
[X]Jeff Bridges:
How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, Heaven's Gate
[X]Maggie Gyllenhaal:
Mona Lisa Smile, The Dark Knight
[X]Robert Duvall:
Network, Colors
[X]Colin Farrell:
Phone Booth, In Bruges
[X]Ray Winstone:
Last Orders, The Departed
[X]Ian McShane:
Deadwood, Death Race
[X]John Hurt:
Rob Roy, V for Vendetta
[X]Tom Wilkinson:
Michael Clayton, Girl with a Pearl Earring
[X]Stephen Dillane:
Welcome to Sarajevo, King Arthur
[X]Colin Ford:
Push, Bride Wars
[X]James Earl Jones:
The Sandlot, The Hunt for Red October
[X]Madison Davenport:
Kit Kittredge, Humboldt County
[X]Emily Rose Everhard:
Bratz, Ace Ventura Jr
[X]Adair Tishler:
Heroes, Pop Star
[X]Peter Jackson:
Lord of the Rings, Heavenly Creatures
[X]Saoirse Ronan:
City of Ember, Atonement
[X]Mark Wahlberg:
The Happening, Boogie Nights
[X]Rachel Weisz:
Confidence, The Brothers Bloom
[X]Stanley Tucci:
A Life Less Ordinary, The Hoax
[X]Gael Garcia Bernal:
The Motorcycle Diaries, Babel
[X]Michelle Williams:
The Station Agent, Wendy & Lucy
[X]Mark Hamill:
Star Wars, Afro Samurai: Resurrection
[X]Tim Curry:
Congo, Kinsey
[X]Lance Henriksen:
Appaloosa, The Last Samurai
[X]Ellen Page:
Juno, Whip It
[X]Cillian Murphy:
28 Days Later, Sunshine
[X]Susan Sarandon:
Elizabethtown, Igby Goes Down
[X]Josh Lucas:
A Beautiful Mind, Glory Road
[X]Olivier Assayas:
Demonlover, Irma Vep
[X]Juliette Binoche:
Dan in Real Life, Chocolat
[X]Charles Berling:
A Matter of Taste, L'ennui
[X]Jeremie Renier:
Lorna's Silence, Brotherhood of the Wolf
[X]Lynn Collins:
50 First Dates, The Number 23
[X]Joseph Gordon-Levitt:
500 Days of Summer, Brick
[X]Emily Blunt:
The Devil Wears Prada, Sunshine Cleaning
[X]Rupert Friend:
Cheri, Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont
[X]Paul Bettany:
Firewall, Inkheart

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Week of April 13th

Light Hearted

Set in 1966, when the British government deemed rock & roll unfit for their airwaves, a boat off the coast transmits banned music from international waters in Pirate Radio. Sent to the boat by his mother to "clean up his act," Tom Sturridge has an in with Bill Nighy, his godfather and the boat's captain. He gets a crash course on rock and rebellion by the boat's crew of various on-air radio personalities, including Nick Frost and Philip Seymour Hoffman as a wild American DJ, and his first love with the captain's niece (Talulah Riley). Smooth sailing can't last forever, as the pirate broadcasters come under a fire of a minister (Kenneth Branagh) who wants to shut them down, and his subordinate (Jack Davenport) who has found an angle to shut down the pirate's broadcast forever. On DVD and Blu Ray.

The newest film by the Broken Lizard comedy troupe, The Slammin Salmon is the name of the restaurant run by The Champ (Michael Clarke Duncan), who needs the restaurant to make $20,000 in one night. As the wait staff (from the Broken Lizard team) struggle to make more money than the restaurant's ever made in one night, everything goes outrageously wrong and the team has to try and keep the restaurant alive against all odds, with customers like Jim Gaffigan, Will Forte, and Lance Henriksen just trying to have a normal night out.

Tim Allen directs and stars in Crazy on the Outside as an ex-con trying to get his life together and fly straight... but every aspect of his life on the outside is completely crazy. From his sister (Sigourney Weaver) who told his family that he'd been in France for three years and her antagonistic husband (J.K. Simmons), to the discovery that his girlfriend (Julie Bowen) isn't dead (like his sister told him) but marrying a home theater salesman (Kelsey Grammer), nothing is normal. On top of that, his beautiful parole officer (Jeanne Tripplehorn) doesn't take his ambition to go straight and take over his father's painting business seriously, and neither does his former partner (Ray Liotta) who wants him to return to a life of crime.

Indies

Arthur Poppington (Woody Harrelson) is a simple minded road worker by day, but if he can't grasp complex ideas, he his devoted to the ideas of right and wrong: at night, he is Defendor (with an "-or;" he gets upset if you get that wrong). Armed his his grandfather's WWII trench club and a handful of homemade gadgets and tricks, the costumed Defendor walks the streets at night fighting the bad men until he encounters a runaway teenage prostitute (Kat Dennings) who sets him up against a real kingpin. Defendor's new partner and crusade cause trouble with Arthur's best friend (Michael Kelly) and the girl's crooked cop pimp (Elias Koteas)... but if Defendor on the street is a simple man with unshakable morals, he can be a powerful symbol in the hearts and minds of the public. With Sandra Oh.

18-year-old John Foster is trying to put his past behind him, a murderer released from a juvenile penitentiary, but the media and his arresting officer (Russell Crowe) aren't letting him forget in Tenderness (based on the book by Robert Cormier). On the road, he finds Sophie Traub hiding in his back seat, and the two bond over their time together, but the cop who put him may be right: his violent impulses never truly went away, and his happenstance passenger could be his downfall or his salvation.

Zombies

A pair of zombie films are new this week--
first, the Port Gamble-set Zombies of Mass Destruction (which premiered at SIFF) is a zombie comedy with a political bent, whose heroes are second generation Iranian American (usually assumed to be Iraqi, and responsible for a terrorist biological attack) returning home after her time at Princeton, and a gay man (blamed for moral decay and biblical wrath) returning from Manhattan with his partner to come out to his mother. The zombie outbreak creates a social satire about prejudice and inflexibility that is drenched in buckets of blood.

Next, Autumn is set in a world where billions are dead from a virus, but the remaining people begin to realize they are not alone. The re-animated dead don't pose any threat at first, and the survivors just wait from them to decompose... but as time goes on, the zombies slowly get their senses back, attracted to sound and light, and the only way to survive is to quietly hide in the dark.

Subtitles

Our foreign language films this week include--
Three Kingdoms, set in the same conflict as Red Cliff, tells the story of Zhao Zilong (Andy Lau) as he joins the army and fights for peace and unity throughout his homeland. As Zhao Zilong rises from a common footsoldier to undefeated hero, his story is told by his "big brother" (Sammo Hung), from the early besting of General Cao (Damian Lau) to the elderly hero's final campaign against Cao Ying (Maggie Q), the general's granddaughter.

When Sylvie Testud receives a break-up letter from her husband, deployed on the French front lines during World War I, she rushes out to the front to find him... but since women aren't allowed to go out alone during wartime, she has to dress up and pass herself off as a young male soldier in La France. With Pascal Greggory and Guillaume Verdier.

Documentaries

The follow-up to 2003's Yes Men, The Yes Men Fix the World keeps up with the culture-jamming duo as they set up websites and attend corporate lectures when they're invited: the Yes Men pose as representatives of Dow and Halliburton and present the business community with profitable opportunities only slightly more absurd than the companies' actual policies... causing trouble for the corporations, and sometimes themselves.

The Beaches of Agnes is the autobiographical documentary of Agnes Varda, director of The Gleaners and I and Cleo from 5 to 7. The celebrated director recounts her time in film for her 80th birthday, covering her past in the French New Wave, the feminist movement, and the cultural revolutions of the 1960s.


New this week to Reckless Video's TV New Releases are BBC's dysfunctional family dramedy Shameless and the Cranford follow-up, Return to Cranford.
[X]Dexter Fletcher:
Layer Cake, Doom
[X]David Carradine:
Dead & Breakfast, Kill Bill
[X]Tim Allen:
Galaxy Quest, Wild Hogs
[X]Julie Bowen:
Happy Gilmore, An American Werewolf in Paris
[X]Sigourney Weaver:
Alien, Baby Mama
[X]Jeanne Tripplehorn:
Timecode, Grey Gardens
[X]Kelsey Grammer:
An American Carol, Fame
[X]Woody Harrelson:
Transsiberian, Surfer, Dude
[X]Elias Koteas:
Apt Pupil, The Fourth Kind
[X]Michael Kelly:
Dawn of the Dead, Changeling
[X]Sandra Oh:
Sideways, Grey's Anatomy
[X]Sylvie Testud:
The Chateau, La Vie en Rose
[X]Pascal Greggory:
Queen Margot, The Messenger
[X]Guillaume Verdier:
The Pornographer, Priceless
[X]Tom Sturridge:
Vanity Fair, Being Julia
[X]Bill Nighy:
Underworld, The Girl in the Cafe
[X]Philip Seymour Hoffman:
Charlie Wilson's War, Punch Drunk Love
[X]Nick Frost:
Hot Fuzz, Spaced
[X]Talulah Riley:
St. Trinian's, Pride & Prejudice
[X]Kenneth Branagh:
Rabbit-Proof Fence, Henry V
[X]Jack Davenport:
The Wedding Date, The Pirates of the Caribbean
[X]Broken Lizard:
Super Troopers, Beerfest
[X]Steve Lemme:
Dukes of Hazzard, Open Water
[X]Michael Clarke Duncan:
Sin City, Daredevil
[X]Jim Gaffigan:
Away We Go, 13 Going on 30
[X]Lance Henriksen:
Appaloosa, Dead Man
[X]Robert Cormier:
I am the Cheese, The Chocolate War
[X]Sophie Traub:
The Interpreter, Daltry Calhoun
[X]John Foster:
Stay Alive, Pandorum
[X]Russell Crowe:
State of Play, Virtuosity
[X]Andy Lau:
Legend of the Drunken Master, House of Flying Daggers
[X]Sammo Hung:
Zu Warriors, Kill Zone
[X]Damian Lau:
The Enforcer, Legend of the Red Dragon

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Save the Planet

  • The 11th Hour
  • Atlantis
  • Baraka
  • Bio Dome
  • A Boy & His Dog
  • George Carlin: Jammin In New York
  • The Core
  • The Day After Tomorrow
  • Delicatessen
  • Earth
  • Erin Brockovich
  • Ferngully: Last Rainforest
  • Final Fantasy: Spirits Within
  • Fire Down Below
  • Godzilla Vs. Hedorah
  • The Happening
  • An Inconvenient Truth
  • Koyaanisqatsi
  • Life After People
  • Naqoyqatsi
  • Aftermath: Population 0
  • On Deadly Ground
  • Planet Earth
  • Powaqqatsi
  • Silent Running
  • The Simpsons Movie
  • Sleepdealer
  • Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
  • Wall-E
  • The World Is Not Enough

Spotlight On... Save the Planet

With James Cameron's Avatar coming out on April 20th (releasing Avatar on Earth Day may or may not be ironic... that one's up for debate), Reckless Video is turning the spotlight on Earth Day movies:

There are plenty of films based around care of the environment in one way or another, and we've picked out a wide variety of them, to include awareness documentaries like An Inconvenient Truth and The 11th Hour, as well as Paulie Shore and Stephen Baldwin wrecking the Bio-Dome, or Homer Simpsons' environmental disaster in The Simpsons Movie.

The theme is wide ranging enough to pull the "tone poem" movies like Koyaanisqatsi and Baraka, Steven Seagal's eco-warrior films (On Deadly Ground and Fire Down Below), and even Godzilla Vs. Hedorah, the most psychedelic of the series, where Godzilla battles an evil smog monster that feeds on pollution.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Week of April 6th

Crime & Punishment

Zoe's Corner

Dear Werner,
After just viewing The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, I realize that I love you in ways that may not be appropriate or savory. When I first met you through Aguirre The Wrath of God, I was so bowled over by Klaus that I didn't see your deft hand as director. Through Nosferatu (which I saw in the movie theatre twice in a week) Woyzeck and Fitzcarraldo (which I watch every Christmas) I saw Klaus through your eyes. Then I admit, I let my love of you falter. I went a few years, missed Little Dieter Needs to Fly in the theatres (the documentary you based Rescue Dawn on).

Then I found you again as the guiding voice of Incident at Loch Ness, Grizzly Man and Encounters at the End of the World ("This is not a cute Penguin film"). But nothing in this world prepared me for Bad Lieutenant. Nothing could. This wonderful mix of iguana P.O.V. shots, Nicolas Cage making Klaus look down right sane, and your complete ability to capture the comedy of this movie, make me love you once again with the joy I felt the first time I heard your dry lovely accent. I know everyone here at Reckless has the ability to impersonate you, and we all are over the moon about Bad Lieutenant, but I want you to know that burning in my heart I will carry a flame for you, possibly forever....
Love and Kisses,
Zoe Claire
Reckless Video.
It's hard to imagine anyone wanting to helm a remake/sequel of the cult 1992 film Bad Lieutenant, but the incredibly weird mix of auteur Werner Herzog, Nicolas Cage as the unbalanced police officer, and an unbelievably over the top script make Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans a one-of-a-kind film. Police Lieutenant McDonagh (Cage) is investigating the drug-related murder of a Senegalese family, but his constant drug use and outbursts of violence make him so unpredictable that even his racist, witness-assaulting partner (Val Kilmer) starts to lose faith in him. Wandering closer to the life of crime than the law, McDonagh's life is centered around his bookie and keeping drugs flowing to his escort/girlfriend (Eva Mendez), so when he does find the murderous drug kingpin (Xzibit)... will he make an arrest, or a business deal? On DVD and Blu Ray.

Based on a Stephen King short story, Dolan's Cadillac tells the story of Robinson (Wes Bentley) and Elizabeth (Emmanuelle Vaugier), a suburban couple who happen into the path of a vicious human trafficker. When Elizabeth runs across a truck importing young women into the United States, she becomes a witness against the ruthless kingpin Dolan (Christian Slater) who's never had to stand trial, because all witnesses against him tend to disappear... the kind of circumstances that lead Robinson down the path of payback and bloody revenge.

Set in basketball-obsessed Indiana, Haley Joel Osment stars as Robert Gartland, a devoted fan of high high school team and best friend of star player Matt Morrison (Ryan Merriman) in Home of the Giants. When a small-time drug dealer (Kenneth Mitchell) talks Matt into robbing a competitor, Gartland goes along... but complications lead to Matt throwing games, and Gartland struggling with his friendship and fan loyalty, especially after meeting Danielle Panabaker, who doesn't share in the town's popular obsession with basketball.

Directed by the writer of the last three Saw movies, The Collector stars Josh Stewart as a thief who breaks into a house, only to find the family that lives there bound and bloody. As he tries to get out, he finds that the entire place has been turned into an elaborate death trap, where everything that could possibly help him (phones, weapons) are rigged to hurt him, and all the exits are either locked or lethal. As he tries to navigate through acid floors, decoy captives, fishhook barriers, and bear trap rooms, he as to find a way to save the remaining family members and outsmart the masked Collector who always seems to be one step ahead. With Michael Reilly Burke, Andrea Roth, and Juan Fernandez.


Starz' Party Down is the newest addition to Reckless Video's TV New Release section, where a failed actor (Adam Scott) gives up his dreams of Hollywood and takes on a minimum wage food service job. He finds himself working for an old friend (Ken Marino), getting his life on track as a Team Leader after a history of drinking and drugs, and spending his time with co-workers who all have dreams of stardom: a sci-fi obsessed writer with a superiority complex (Martin Starr), a vapid pretty boy actor (Ryan Hansen), a sardonic stand-up comedienne (Lizzy Caplan), and a B-movie actress past her prime (Jane Lynch)... as they all cater the kinds of parties they believe they should be attending.
[X]Werner Herzog:
Fitzcarraldo, Encounters at the End of the World
[X]Nicolas Cage:
The Wicker Man, Lord of War
[X]Eva Mendez:
We Own the Night, The Spirit
[X]Val Kilmer:
Deja Vu, The Ghost and the Darkness
[X]Michael Reilly Burke:
Death of a President, Ted Bundy
[X]Andrea Roth:
War, Rescue Me
[X]Juan Fernandez:
A Man Apart, Executive Decision
[X]Stephen King:
The Green Mile, The Mist
[X]Wes Bentley:
Weirdsville, American Beauty
[X]Emmanuelle Vaugier:
Saw IV, Secondhand Lions
[X]Haley Joel Osment:
Artificial Intelligence: A.I, Pay It Forward
[X]Ryan Merriman:
Final Destination 3, The Ring 2
[X]Danielle Panabaker:
Mr Brooks, Sky High
[X]Kenneth Mitchell:
Jericho, The Recruit
[X]Brent Briscoe:
In the Valley of Elah, The Messengers
[X]Ken Marino:
Role Models, The Baxter
[X]Ryan Hansen:
Veronica Mars, Friday the 13th
[X]Lizzy Caplan:
Cloverfield, Mean Girls
[X]Jane Lynch:
For Your Consideration, Glee
[X]Christian Slater:
He Was a Quiet Man, Hard Rain