Week of June 29th

Gods and Mortals

Logan Lerman discovers that he's the son of Poseidon in Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and is suddenly thrust into a clash between his father (Kevin McKidd) and Zeus (Sean Bean). Along with his best friend (Brandon T. Jackson) he learns about being half-deity, and adventures to recover Zeus' lightning bolt and stop a war between the gods. With Catherine Keener, Alexandra Daddario, and Jake Abel. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

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Bad Behavior

Provocative director Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon is the story of a puritanical village in pre-World War I Germany, where the town's Pastor instills guilt in the children and makes them wear white ribbons to symbolize their lost purity. Along with the Pastor, the town is run by the Doctor, a man of questionable morals, and the Baron, who owns most of the land. Mysteriously, accidents begin to happen throughout the village, and as members of the community are hurt or killed, the balance of power in the town begins to shift, but what is the cause? On DVD and Blu-Ray.

When a man wanders into a baseball game with a rifle in a small Iowa town and won't respond or drop his gun, the sheriff (Timothy Olyphant) is forced to shoot him in The Crazies, a remake of George Romero's 1973 film. The people in the town first begin to act distant and react sluggishly... and then turn violent. The sheriff and his deputy (Joe Anderson) try to keep the town from destroying itself as the town's doctor (Rhada Mitchell), also the sheriff's wife, tries to understand the infection that is driving normal people to kill. With Danielle Panabaker. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Don McKay stars Thomas Hayden Church as the title character, a man who returns to his hometown after 25 years when he finds out his long lost love (Elisabeth Shue) is dying. She's not quite the woman he remembers as his selective memory of the past conflict with the present, and her caretaker (Melissa Leo) and doctor (M. Emmet Walsh) aren't welcoming their new visitor. With Keith David.

Trying to carve out his slice of the American dream, Billy Crudup enlists the help of Paul Giamatti to build a “rocket belt” in Pretty Bird, but differences of opinion change dreams of invention and sales to kidnapping and murder. With Kristen Wiig, Garret Dillahunt, and Denis O'Hare.

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Bachelorhood

Unhappy in 2010, the recently dumped John Cusack, the powerless and hen-pecked Craig Robinson, and the possibly suicidal Rob Corddry are given a chance to re-live 1986 through an unusual time travel device in Hot Tub Time Machine. Though Cusack's nephew (Clark Duke) appears normal in 1986, the rest of the guys look like they did as 18-year-olds, re-experiencing a weekend at a ski resort... but now they have to chose: do they recreate the past exactly as it happened, or try to fix their past mistakes and gamble with the paradoxes of time travel? Add drugs, alcohol, girls, parties, and a Poison concert, and it becomes less likely that the men (now boys) will behave responsibly. With Sebastian Stan.


After his girlfriend leaves him, a slacker takes his VW micro-mini bus on a road trip from Seattle to New York in Bass Ackward. Part documentary, part improvised indie film, part road movie, Bass Ackward is both a movie and the story of making a movie, more about the journey than the destination.

The Irish The Eclipse is the story of a widower (Ciaran Hinds) who is haunted by apparitions alone in his house by the sea. As he begins a relationship with a writer of supernatural novels (Iben Hjejle), his visions and hauntings become more frightening and violent when an American rival (Aidan Quinn) for her affections enters their lives.

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More Titles

The story of Charles (Paul Bettany) and Emma (Jennifer Connelly) Darwin during the writing of On the Origin of the Species, Creation focuses Charles' relationship with his 10-year-old daughter Annie, an inquisitive girl who is persecuted by the family clergyman (Jeremy Northam) for believing her father's theories. Darwin struggles with his duties to his family, his community, and his friends (Toby Jones and Benedict Cumberbatch) as he works for years on the document that will cement his place in history.

Jon Hamm is a police detective haunted by the loss of his son in Stolen, and when a box containing the remains of a small boy is uncovered, he and his wife (Rhona Mitra) fear the worst. The body in the box, nearly 50 years old, begins an investigation of a drifter and father of three (Josh Lucas) in the 60's. The stories of both troubled men intertwine across the eras, as they struggle with their families, their losses, and the darker side of fatherhood. With James Van Der Beek.

The horror comedy Blood on the Highway finds three twenty-somethings on their way to a desert festival stopping in the small town of Fate, Texas for supplies. The only hitch: the entire town has been turned into vampires. When they first encounter trouble, they don't suspect anything supernatural, but when they're discovered by the few remaining humans in Fate, the whole group has to band together to survive to see the sun rise.

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New this week to Reckless Video's TV New Releases are the 5th season of the police drama The Closer and season 3.5 of the science fiction show Eureka. We also have the first seasons of BBC's archeologist/mystery show Bonekickers and SyFy's Warehouse 13, as well as standup comedian Steve Byrne's comedy special Happy Hour.

[X]Timothy Olyphant:
A Perfect Getaway, Catch and Release

[X]Rhada Mitchell:
Pitch Black, Surrogates

[X]Joe Anderson:
Becoming Jane, Amelia

[X]Danielle Panabaker:
Friday the 13th, Yours, Mine, and Ours

[X]Jennifer Connelly:
Requiem for a Dream, Blood Diamond

[X]Paul Bettany:
The Young Victoria, Legion

[X]Jeremy Northam:
Cypher, The Invasion

[X]Toby Jones:
Infamous, The Mist

[X]Benedict Cumberbatch:
The Other Boleyn Girl, Tipping the Velvet

[X]Thomas Hayden Church:
Tombstone, All About Steve

[X]Elisabeth Shue:
Leaving Las Vegas, Gracie

[X]Melissa Leo:
21 Grams, Frozen River

[X]M. Emmet Walsh:
Youth in Revolt, The Milagro Beanfield War

[X]Keith David:
Transporter 2, Superhero Movie

[X]Ciaran Hinds:
Margot at the Wedding, There Will Be Blood

[X]Iben Hjejle:
Defiance, High Fidelity

[X]Aidan Quinn:
Dark Matter, Practical Magic

[X]John Cusack:
Max, 2012

[X]Clark Duke:
Sex Drive, Superbad

[X]Craig Robinson:
Daddy's Little Girls, Dragon Wars

[X]Rob Corddry:
Semi-Pro, What Happens in Vegas

[X]Sebastian Stan:
The Education of Charlie Banks, The Covenant

[X]Logan Lerman:
Hoot, 3:10 to Yuma

[X]Brandon T. Jackson:
Tropic Thunder, Roll Bounce

[X]Sean Bean:
Troy, The Hitcher

[X]Kevin McKidd:
Made of Honor, Dog Soldiers

[X]Catherine Keener:
Where the Wild Things Are, Out of Sight

[X]Alexandra Daddario:
The Squid & the Whale

[X]Jake Abel:
Flash of Genius, The Lovely Bones

[X]Paul Giamatti:
Big Fat Liar, Shoot 'em Up

[X]Billy Crudup:
Big Fish, Watchmen

[X]Kristen Wiig:
Knocked Up, Whip It

[X]Garret Dillahunt:
Last House on the Left, The Believer

[X]Denis O'Hare:
Edge of Darkness, Baby Mama

[X]Jon Hamm:
The Day the Earth Stood Still, Ira & Abby

[X]Josh Lucas:
Glory Road, A Beautiful Mind

[X]Rhona Mitra:
Sweet Home Alabama, Doomsday

[X]James Van Der Beek:
The Rules of Attraction, Varsity Blues

[X]Michael Haneke:
Funny Games, Time of the Wolf

Week of June 22nd

Mystery of War

Director Paul Greengrass reteams with his Bourne series star in Green Zone, casting Matt Damon as a warrant officer looking for Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. As his raids turn up empty warehouses, his investigation leads him to a CIA official (Brendan Gleeson), a Pentagon insider (Greg Kinnear), and a journalist (Amy Ryan) looking for similar answers... but as his witnesses, sources, and leads dry up, the mystery starts to evolve from finding the WMDs to discovering who is keeping secrets, and why all the information keeps evaporating. On DVD and Blu Ray.

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Great Loves

Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren were both nominated for Academy Awards for their portrayals of Leo and Sophia Tolstoy in The Last Station. Set in 1910, in the last year of Tolstoy's life, as Leo's principles (pro-celibacy and anti-property) have inspired a near-religious group of followers called "Tolstoians," which conflicts with Sophia's more pragmatic desires to keep their lifestyle and property for their children. The leader of the Tolstoians (Paul Giamatti) hires James McAvoy to serve as Tolstoy's secretary-- he seems to be a perfect fit: a virgin, fully dedicated to "The Master"-- but his time at the Tolstoy estate reveals a strange and compelling family, and facets of life that are completely new to him. With Kerry Condon. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Jay Baruchel is working at the airport and struggling to get back together with his dismissive ex (Lindsay Sloane) when he finds himself going out with the beautiful, successful Molly (Alice Eve) in She's Out of My League. His friends (T.J. Miller and Nate Torrence) tell him that the blooming relationship is doomed-- no way a "5" like him can last with a "10" like Molly-- while her best friend and business partner (Krysten Ritter) can't understand what Molly's doing with a geeky loser, but they might be able to put their friends' rules aside and find their own way to make things work. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Tyler (Robert Pattinson) is a directionless bookstore clerk who gets in trouble with a New York detective (Chris Cooper), and, as revenge, he plans to seduce and abandon the detective's daughter, Ally (Emilie de Ravin) in Remember Me. The two bond over the losses in their life and begin to fall in love; though their relationship is fraught with drama, their time together helps both of them overcome the traumas in their past. With Pierce Brosnan.

Emma Caulfield is waiting for Mr. Right in Timer, where most people have displays implanted on their wrists which countdown to the day where they'll meet their perfect match... but hers is blank. Her sister (Michelle Borth) uses the years on her countdown time to meet casual, no-strings-attached guys, and encourages her to do the same; if she follows through with the sweet, slacker, checkout boy at the grocery store (John Patrick Amedori), what will she do when he meets his perfect soulmate, as his Timer counts down the next four months? With Desmond Harrington.

Scott Porter is a high power Wall Street trader who falls in love with Alexis Bledel in The Good Guy, but the competitive world he lives in spills over into his love life, as she becomes the prize in a competition with his co-worker Bryan Greenberg. As she wants the perfect life and the perfect man, the two guys apply the ethics of their job to a cutthroat game to win her heart. With Anna Chlumsky.

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Odds 'n' Ends

Patrick Warburton is the title character in Rock Slyde, a Marlowe-style, voice-over narrating, down-on his luck detective. Taking a case just to keep his office in a building that has been taken over by a quasi-religious cult leader (Andy Dick), he's got to protect his client and keep safe his long suffering secretary, which isn't easy for a big guy in a tiny car and little chance of making sense of what's going on around him... though he's set on keeping the lights low and the narration running, no matter what.

The documentary The Tiger Next Door investigates the private owners of large cats, the conditions in which privately owned lions, leopards, and tigers are kept, and the people who care for them. The film looks at both schools of thought: the collectors love their cats, and keep them as well as they can, though their detractors see the cats as prisoners, kept from the life that is natural to wild animals.

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New this week to Reckless Video's TV New Releases are the 6th Season of the Hollywood series Entourage, as well as the first season of Hung. We also have the Christmas Special (and prequel) for The Trailer Park Boys, the complete anime series Samurai Champloo, and Travel Channel miniseries Living with the Kombai Tribe.

[X]Alexis Bledel:
Gilmore Girls, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

[X]Scott Porter:
Dear John, Bandslam

[X]Bryan Greenberg:
Bride Wars, Nobel Son

[X]Anna Chlumsky:
In the Loop, My Girl

[X]Paul Greengrass:
United 93, The Bourne Ultimatum

[X]Amy Ryan:
Changeling, Gone Baby Gone

[X]Brendan Gleeson:
Braveheart, The Village

[X]Greg Kinnear:
Mystery Men, Flash of Genius

[X]James McAvoy:
Atonement, The Last King of Scotland

[X]Helen Mirren:
State of Play, Prime Suspect

[X]Paul Giamatti:
Sideways, Cold Souls

[X]Kerry Condon:
Intermission, Unleashed

[X]Christopher Plummer:
Somewhere in Time, Dolores Claiborne

[X]Robert Pattinson:
Twilight, Little Ashes

[X]Emilie de Ravin:
Brick, Public Enemies

[X]Chris Cooper:
Breach, Capote

[X]Pierce Brosnan:
The Matador, GoldenEye

[X]Patrick Warburton:
The Venture Brothers, Get Smart

[X]Andy Dick:
Employee of the Month, NewsRadio

[X]Jay Baruchel:
I'm Reed Fish, Tropic Thunder

[X]Lindsay Sloane:
Bring It On, The Accidental Husband

[X]T.J. Miller:
Cloverfield, Extract

[X]Nate Torrence:
My Best Friend's Girl, Get Smart

[X]Alice Eve:
Crossing Over, Starter for 10

[X]Krysten Ritter:
Confessions of a Shopaholic, 27 Dresses

[X]Emma Caulfield:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Darkness Falls

[X]Michelle Borth:
Wonderland, Tell Me You Love Me

[X]Desmond Harrington:
Wrong Turn, We Were Soldiers

[X]John Patrick Amedori:
Little Athens, Stick It

[X]Matt Damon:
Good Will Hunting, School Ties

Week of June 15th

Questions of Morality

Eli (Denzel Washington) is on a solitary journey in a post-apocalyptic wasteland in The Book of Eli. When he stops in a makeshift town away from the gangs that roam the world, Carnegie (Gary Oldman), the community's leader, asks him to stay. When Carnegie discovers that Eli has the book that could be the key to his future, he'll do anything to possess it... but Eli's on a mission, and no matter how many men are sent to take what's his, Eli will not be stopped. With Mila Kunis, Ray Stevenson, and Jennifer Beals. On DVD and Blu Ray.

A drama about terrorism, interrogation, and the drastic measures taken by both sides, Unthinkable puts Michael Sheen in the interrogator's chair as a terrorist who's planted three nuclear bombs across America. While FBI Agent Brody (Carrie-Anne Moss) is concerned with the the rules and due process, the interrogator (Samuel L. Jackson) is willing to do anything to get the location of the bombs, and with time running out, everyone gets more desperate, they are all willing to resort to measures they never would have considered before. With Stephen Root and Brandon Routh.

When his daughter dies of a drug overdose at the hands of sleazy pornographers, Peter Marshall will stop at nothing to find the people responsible in the Australian The Horseman. He's willing to question, torture, and kill his way through the distributors, actors, and producers of the movie that killed his daughter... until he finds the man who is ultimately responsible for her death. With Brad McMurray.

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Love

When high school virgin Nick Twisp (Michael Cera) meets the girl of his dreams in Youth in Revolt, there's a lot keeping them apart-- the biggest problem being that nice guys like Nick always finish last, which inspires him to create a suave, mustachioed, bad-boy alter ego named Francois Dillinger. With Dillinger's help, Twisp gets himself kicked out of his mother's (Jean Smart) house, away from her huckster boyfriend (Zach Galifianakis), and moves in with his father (Steve Buscemi) to be closer to his girl. Francois causes a lot of damage helping Nick do everything he can to overcome all the obstacles in his way, as they alienate the girl's religious parents (M. Emmet Walsh and Mary Kay Place) and endanger a series of helpful wingmen (including Erik Knudsen and Adhir Kalyan) in a quest for love. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Career-oriented Beth (Kristen Bell) doesn't think she has time for love when she hits it off with Nick (Josh Duhamel) while visiting Rome in When in Rome. When a misunderstanding comes between them, she's disenchanted enough to take coins out of the "Fountain of Love," which makes the owners of the coins fall in love with her. Now she's constantly pursued by a sausage magnate (Danny DeVito), a street magician (Jon Heder), an obsessed painter (Will Arnett), and an egotistical model (Dax Shepard) who will all be in the way of her finding happiness with Nick until she can put the coins back into the fountain... but her boss (Anjelica Huston) is keeping her too busy to return to Rome. On DVD and Blu Ray.

A parody of Apatow comedies, The 41-Year-Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt Superbad about It stars Bryan Callen as the virgin who is desperate to meet miss right. The movie digs into all the raunchy gags it can find, and spoofs all the movies it can think of, including all the Apatow movies, as well as High School Musical, Twilight, and The Hangover. With Noureen DeWulf.

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Independent Drama

Parker Posey returns to her childhood home to help her sister (Demi Moore) take care of their ailing father (Rip Torn) in Happy Tears. As their father is less and less in control of himself, Moore needs some help taking care of him... which is outside Posey's high-life, city girl comfort zone. With Ellen Barkin.

Released from an institution sixteen years after unintentionally causing the death of his mother, Tanner Beatly tries to return to normal life in Autopilot. He emerges from the institution barely functional, but with any luck his new therapist (Gregory Itzin), his childhood friend (Charlie Hofheimer), and his sister (Shannon Lucio) can help him find himself and reclaim his future.

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Collapse is the new documentary by Chris Smith, about controversial author Michael Ruppert, often labeled a conspiracy theorist for his published views on September 11 and energy issues. The film focuses on Ruppert's obsession with predictions of the collapse of the current industrial and the end of the modern world was we know it, and does not pass judgment on his theories so much as focus on the man himself, as a character study.

Harvey Krumpet creator Adam Elliott brings us Mary & Max, a stop-motion film about a lonely 8-year-old girl in Australia and her 20 year relationship with Max, a 44-year-old New Yorker with Asperger Syndrome, and the strange journey their lives take over the decades.

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New this week to Reckless Video's TV New Releases are Season 8 of the animated comedy Family Guy, as well as Season 1 of the animated Johnny Bravo and the new disc of Shaun the Sheep: One Giant Leap for Lambkind. We also have the first season of the medical series Hawthorne, the second season of the supernatural adventure series Sanctuary, as well as the miniseries Living with the Mek, about the lives of a reclusive tribe in Southeast Asia.

[X]Gregory Itzin:
Law Abiding Citizen, I Know Who Killed Me

[X]Charlie Hofheimer:
Black Hawk Down, Father's Day

[X]Shannon Lucio:
Feast of Love, The O.C.

[X]Denzel Washington:
The Taking of Pelham 123, Devil in a Blue Dress

[X]Gary Oldman:
The Fifth Element, Rain Fall

[X]Mila Kunis:
Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Extract

[X]Ray Stevenson:
Punisher: War Zone, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant

[X]Jennifer Beals:
Vampire's Kiss, The Last Days of Disco

[X]Chris Smith:
The Yes Men, American Movie

[X]Bryan Callen:
The Goods, The Hangover

[X]Noureen DeWulf:
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, American Dreamz

[X]Demi Moore:
Mr Brooks, Ghost

[X]Parker Posey:
Broken English, The Anniversary Party

[X]Rip Torn:
Wonder Boys, August

[X]Ellen Barkin:
Palindromes, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai across the 8th Dimension

[X]Peter Marshall:
Swimming Upstream, Stormy Monday

[X]Brad McMurray:
The Condemned, Godzilla: Final Wars

[X]Samuel L. Jackson:
Die Hard with a Vengeance, The Incredibles

[X]Carrie-Anne Moss:
The Matrix, Fido

[X]Michael Sheen:
The Damned United, The Queen

[X]Stephen Root:
Office Space, The Men Who Stare at Goats

[X]Brandon Routh:
Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Superman Returns

[X]Kristen Bell:
Fanboys, Veronica Mars

[X]Josh Duhamel:
Win a Date with Tad Hamilton, Transformers

[X]Anjelica Huston:
Buffalo '66, The Darjeeling Limited

[X]Will Arnett:
The Brothers Solomon, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

[X]Jon Heder:
Napoleon Dynamite, Mama's Boy

[X]Dax Shepard:
Idiocracy, Baby Mama

[X]Danny DeVito:
Nobel Son, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

[X]Michael Cera:
Paper Heart, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

[X]Jean Smart:
I Heart Huckabees, Bringing Down the House

[X]Steve Buscemi:
The Messenger, Miller's Crossing

[X]Zach Galifianakis:
Visioneers, Up in the Air

[X]Erik Knudsen:
A Lobster Tale, Bon Cop, Bad Cop

[X]Adhir Kalyan:
Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Fired Up!

[X]M. Emmet Walsh:
Blade Runner, Albino Alligator

[X]Mary Kay Place:
Lonesome Jim, Pecker

Week of June 8th

A Little Unbalanced

Shutter Island is a new thriller by Martin Scorsese, where Federal Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his new partner Chuck (Mark Ruffalo) arrive at a secluded island institute for the criminally insane, looking for an inmate that vanished from a locked room. As Teddy begins his investigation, he begins to suspect that the institution's head psychiatrist (Ben Kingsley) and warden (Ted Levine) aren't telling him everything, and may have coached the inmates and witnesses to tell him lies. Teddy's search for the truth leads him through the cracks of an elaborate conspiracy, and down a spiraling path that may have claimed may lives. With Jackie Earle Haley, Elias Koteas, and Max von Sydow. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Paddy Considine is finalizing his divorce with Charlotte Sullivan, who accused him of suffering a psychotic break and trying to kill her, in The Cry of the Owl. Moving out of the city and taking a job that's beneath him, he spends his free nights watching Julia Stiles through her kitchen window-- when she catches him, the two form a strange bond, but their new union causes a violent backlash.

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Gunfire

John Travolta is super-spy action hero Charlie Wax in From Paris with Love, the new film by Pierre Morel. A low-level CIA employee (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) takes his first step to becoming a full-fledged field operative when he's assigned to be Wax's partner. The new assignment seems like good news until Wax turns out to be a wise-cracking loose cannon, and his trigger happy approach to the mission causes a lot of explosions and a lot of dead bad guys. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Matthias Schweighof stars as the famous World War I flying ace Baron Manfred von Richthofen in The Red Baron. Following the pilot from his days as a young lieutenant on the Western Front to his ascent through the German Air Service, and his life as a celebrity symbol for the war, the film tells the story of the first world war's most famous pilot. With Joseph Fiennes and Til Schweiger.

In a darker turn for Jackie Chan, Shinjuku Incident makes Chan and Daniel Wu brothers in Japan's underworld. Though Chan wants to go straight and become a legal citizen of Japan, he gets caught in the war between his Yakuza boss (Masaya Kato) and a Taiwanese Triad leader (Jack Kao), and is stuck at the crossroads between loyalty, opportunity, and the desire to live an honest life.

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Light

An unemployed and aimless Hugh Dancy loses his girlfriend (Gillian Jacobs) and tries to find some direction in his life by coaching a neighborhood soccer team in Coach. Working with kids gives him a bit of purpose, and might give him enough self worth to win the heart of the local doctor (Liane Balaban).

Jessica (Danielle Campbell) heads out to Los Angeles to visit her grandparents in Disney's Star Struck, but her sister (Maggie Castle) is in town to try to meet the famous Christopher Wilde (Sterling Knight). Instead, Wilde ends up spending his time with Jessica, and though the two have a good day together, she has a lot to learn about what it means to be in a celebrity's world.

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The documentary 180° South follows Jeff Johnson to Patagonia, as he seeks to climb Cerro Corcovado. As he sets out to recreate the 1968 journey of his heroes, the documentary finds his journey sidetracked as he overcomes a variety of obstacles, which include getting shipwrecked on Easter Island.

Not the Messiah is a taping of the Monty Python musical treatment of The Life of Brian, as imagined by Python member Eric Idle. The show is packed with guest stars and full of new songs, as well as a show stopping rendition of "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life."

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New this week to Reckless Video's TV New Releases are the 6th seasons of both the medical drama Nip/Tuck and the British detective series Foyle's War. We also have season 7 of Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm, season 3 of the spy series Burn Notice, and the complete series of the vampire hunting anime Trinity Blood.

[X]Leonardo DiCaprio:
Catch Me If You Can, Titanic

[X]Hugh Dancy:
Adam, Confessions of a Shopaholic

[X]Liane Balaban:
Last Chance Harvey, Definitely, Maybe

[X]Gillian Jacobs:
Choke, The Box

[X]Julia Stiles:
The Omen, The Business of Strangers

[X]Charlotte Sullivan:
Harriet the Spy, How to Deal

[X]Paddy Considine:
In America, My Zinc Bed

[X]Pierre Morel:
District B13, Taken

[X]John Travolta:
The Taking of Pelham 123, The Boy in the Plastic Bubble

[X]Jonathan Rhys Meyers:
The Tudors, Vanity Fair

[X]Eric Idle:
Splitting Heirs, Nuns on the Run

[X]Matthias Schweighof:
Night Train, Valkyrie

[X]Joseph Fiennes:
Running with Scissors, The Darwin Awards

[X]Til Schweiger:
Inglourious Basterds, SLC Punk

[X]Jackie Chan:
Rumble in the Bronx, The Spy Next Door

[X]Daniel Wu:
Blood Brothers, House of Fury

[X]Masaya Kato:
Aragami, Gozu

[X]Jack Kao:
Millennium Mambo, Time and Tide

[X]Martin Scorsese:
Raging Bull, The Age of Innocence

[X]Mark Ruffalo:
The Brothers Bloom, Reservation Road

[X]Ben Kingsley:
The Wackness, Sexy Beast

[X]Ted Levine:
American Gangster, Birth

[X]Jackie Earle Haley:
Watchmen, Little Children

[X]Elias Koteas:
The Fourth Kind, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

[X]Max von Sydow:
Minority Report, Never Say Never Again

[X]Sterling Knight:
17 Again

[X]Danielle Campbell:
Prison Break

[X]Maggie Castle:
The Time Traveler's Wife, Weirdsville

The Rule

While catching up on a few blogs the other day, I came across a mentioning of the Bechdel Test. The test, which comes from a 1985 comic strip called “Dykes to Watch Out For” by Alison Bechdel, has three basic rules that the characters of the strip look for to deem a movie worthy of watching:

1. It has to have at least two women in it
2. Who talk to each other
3. About something besides a man.

The rule, meant to point out the lack of complex female characters in Hollywood, does not seem unreasonable. Now, I consider myself to be somewhat of a feminist, interested in and advocating gender and sex equality in popular culture. I decided to check out my own DVD collection to see how it stacked up to the Bechdel Test.

The results were interesting. Only about six movies out of my fifty-plus DVDs stood out as finalists. Obviously, just because a movie abides by the three rules does not mean that it is automatically a pro-feminism movie, nor is a movie that does not pass the test necessarily testosterone-filled and misogynist. The test did, however, prove its point. Despite the presence of strong female characters in big-budget movies, they are often the only main female character, a sort of token woman (an example could be Leia in Star Wars. The only other named female character is Aunt Beru).
So, now that you know about the Bechdel Test, here are the six movies out of my all-time favorites on my shelf that pass the test:

Beetle Juice – Though the title character is male and oh-so creepy in so many ways, that’s what makes Lydia’s triumph at the end so fantastic. Humble Adam and Barbara are dead but trapped in their house. Overbearing and over-the-top urbanite Delia moves in, doting husband, grotesque sculpture and architecture plans, and daughter Delia in tow. Delia is the only one to notice the dead couple still shacked up in the house. Delia befriends Adam and Barbara and wants to help them in their passage. The story is ripe with all the wonderful teenage awkwardness: rebellion, the need to belong, unlikely bonds, and an unusual obsession with death.

Drop Dead Gorgeous – I’m a native Minnesotan, so naturally I adore this movie. The accents, homely hockey references, and quirky characters are just too adorable not to love. So is the almost completely female cast. With a great script and hilarious performances by Kirsten Dunst, Ellen Barkin, Allison Janney, Kirstie Alley, Mindy Sterling, Denise Richards, Brittany Murphy, and Amy Adams, you’ll laugh so hard at this disastrous small-town beauty pageant that your tiara will fall off.

Kill Bill Vol.1&2 – We meet The Bride after she wakes from a multi-year coma. Bill put her into the coma and presumably killed her child. Naturally, she must seek revenge. Enter the saga of one badass woman’s plight to show the world she’s not one to be messed with. Besides The Bride, there is a host of other, equally badass women- like Yakuza leader O-Ren Ishii, knife-wielding mom Vernita Green, and the venomous Elle Driver.

Mary Poppins – Who doesn’t love this movie? Jane and Michael Banks are possibly the cutest kids ever, but are always running away from their governesses. Mr. Banks is utterly distraught over how his ideal orderly family is not working- even his wife is a loose cannon, fighting for votes for women. Mary Poppins floats in, with her cheery disposition and ability to make the mundane fantastic, and shows this family that there’s nothing wrong with dad being around to play and take care of his kids. It has a wonderful family-oriented message, with plenty of strong women, including young Jane.

Royal Tenenbaums – Arguably the best of Wes Anderson’s movies. There are only two female characters: Etheline Tenenbaum and her daughter Margot Tenenbaum, but that’s not so bad because there are really only twelve characters total in the movie. Etheline is a dedicated matriarch, but despite doing all in her power to raise her kids well, all three are starting to unravel into their thirties. The reappearance of their broke, dead-beat father only intensifies the family tension. Witty dialogue and eccentric characters allow a movie touching on suicide, identity, death, and betrayal to remain a relatable comedy.

The Lady Vanishes – Young socialite Iris Henderson meets older governess Miss Froy. They travel through Germany via train together, when suddenly Miss Froy disappears. Iris senses something sinister and must find her new acquaintance, but others on the train doubt her sanity, claiming Miss Froy never existed. Classic Hitchcock, complete with conspiracy, Nazis, and two women as intelligent leads!

Reckless Reviews - Greta

Week of June 1st

Down the Rabbit Hole

Another re-imagining of Lewis Carrol's classic fables, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland rejoins the life of Alice (Mia Wasikowska), now nineteen years old and with no memory of her childhood adventures, who flees a young woman's troubles of propriety and marriage and ends up down the rabbit hole once again. Led by the White Rabbit (Michael Sheen) through a candy colored world, she encounters the Caterpillar (Alan Rickman) and the Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry), and struggles against her destiny to slay the Jabberwock and defeat the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter). The story unfolds as an epic adventure, mixing computer and practical effects, and is a must-see for anyone who wants to see Crispin Glover in a swordfight with Johnny Depp (as the Mad Hatter). On DVD and Blu Ray.

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Bloodshed

When Benicio Del Toro's brother is killed, he returns to his family's estate to investigate if it was an animal attack or a savage murder in The Wolfman. When the truth about local deaths turn out to be more monstrous than anyone suspects, he's caught between his brother's widow (Emily Blunt), his mysterious and confrontational father (Anthony Hopkins) and the Scotland Yard detective (Hugo Weaving) who may suspect the truth: there's a werewolf on the loose. On DVD and Blu Ray.

The Chilean Tony Manero takes place during Pinochet's reign in the late 70s. Raul, a fifty-something dancer obsessed with the main character from Saturday Night Fever, sees his chance at fame competing in a Tony Manero impersonating contest... though his obsession with his idol can take depraved turns in a world where violence is everywhere.

Pro wrestler Steve Austin is a man with no memory in The Stranger-- pursued by the FBI and the mob, but with no idea why they want him. His memory slowly returns one fight, bullet, and beating at a time, as he slowly resolves to reclaim his past and make sure the ones who stole his life pay for what they took. With Erica Cerra and Adam Beach.

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Drama

The ensemble film Small Town Saturday Night connects the lives of John Hawkes, back from jail and always causing trouble, Shawn Christian, the small town cop trying to keep the peace, Chris Pine, about to leave for Nashville to pursue a songwriting career, his girlfriend Bre Blair, who may not be ready to relocate her life and her daughter, and Adam Hendershott, who just wants to fit in but is controlled by his overbearing mother (Lin Shaye). The characters weave in and out of each other's lives in small town, low-income America, as they reach for what they want as best they can.

A drama about the life of Shakespeare (Rupert Graves) and the experiences that inspired his Sonnets, A Waste of Shame details the loves and tragedies of the Bard's life, and how they became part of his writing, such as The Fair Youth (Tom Sturridge) and The Dark Lady (Indira Varma).

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New this week to Reckless Video's TV New Release section is Life, the multi-part nature documentary that is the natural follow-up to 2006's Planet Earth. We also have the first season of Drop Dead Diva, and the Mike Judge Collection of Beavis & Butthead (which includes the pair's riffing on music videos, previously unavailable on DVD)

[X]Tim Burton:
Edward Scissorhands, Corpse Bride

[X]Mia Wasikowska:
Amelia, In Treatment

[X]Johnny Depp:
Before Night Falls, The Libertine

[X]Helena Bonham Carter:
Howard's End, Fight Club

[X]Stephen Fry:
A Fish Called Wanda, V for Vendetta

[X]Michael Sheen:
Frost/Nixon, The Damned United

[X]Alan Rickman:
Bob Roberts, Bottle Shock

[X]Crispin Glover:
Bartleby, Back to the Future

[X]Shawn Christian:
For Your Consideration, Meet Dave

[X]John Hawkes:
Deadwood, Miracle at St Anna

[X]Chris Pine:
Carriers, Star Trek

[X]Bre Blair:
The Babysitter's Club, The Unit

[X]Adam Hendershott:
Sidney White, Nancy Drew

[X]Lin Shaye:
My Sister's Keeper, Snakes on a Plane

[X]Steve Austin:
The Condemned, The Longest Yard

[X]Erica Cerra:
Eureka, Man About Town

[X]Adam Beach:
The Big Empty, Flags of Our Fathers

[X]Rupert Graves:
A Room with a View, Death at a Funeral

[X]Tom Sturridge:
Pirate Radio, Vanity Fair

[X]Indira Varma:
Bride & Prejudice, Rome

[X]Benicio Del Toro:
Basquiat, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

[X]Emily Blunt:
The Jane Austen Book Club, Sunshine Cleaning

[X]Anthony Hopkins:
84 Charing Cross Road, The Human Stain

[X]Hugo Weaving:
The Matrix, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert