Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Week of July 27th

Release the Kraken!

A remake of the 1981 Ray Harryhausen adventure, Clash of the Titans sends a strangely Australian-sounding Perseus on a hero's journey when he turns out to be a demi-god and the son of Zeus. When Hades takes revenge on humans for neglecting the gods, Perseus must undertake an epic quest and find a way to save the city of Argos and stop the fearful citizens from sacrificing the beautiful Andromeda. Accompanied by the warrior Draco and the ageless Io, and fought every step of the way by the powerful Calibos, Perseus must find a way to defeat the Kraken... a Titan that fears no weapon. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

In a secret underground compound where all the operatives are named after tarot cards, The Fool (Joe Anderson) is having a hard first day in Operation: Endgame. While he's being shown around by the drunk and caustic Chariot (Rob Corddry), the base goes into lockdown and will self destruct in one hour. Suddenly all the operatives are attacking one another and taking sides, as the Emperor (Bob Odenkirk) and Empress (Ellen Barkin) square off, their teams of spies and assassins start killing each other off, and they're all hunted by the Hermit (Zach Galifianakis)... but Temperance (Odette Yustman) is searching for a way out and a reason for battle royale. With Adam Scott and Emilie de Ravin. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Waiting for organ donors is a thing of the past in the futuristic Repo Men, but the company that makes the new, hi-tech, artificial organs will repossess their property if the transplant recipients can't make their payments. Remy (Jude Law) and Jake (Forest Whitaker) track down the non-payers, knock them out, open them up, reclaim the organs, and return them to their boss (Liev Schreiber). Remy's wife (Carice van Houten) hates the repo life, but his growing a conscience could mean all out war against the company and his bosses. With Alice Braga. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

The story of the first man to teach Wing Chun kung fu, Ip Man stars Donnie Yen as Master Ip. Set in the 1930s in southern China, Master Ip is a private citizen in a city known for martial arts, and though he doesn't teach, he is a gracious host and will practice or host private matches with visiting masters. With the event of the Japanese invasion, the peaceful Master Ip is pushed to fight, and stand up for his honor and his community against the Japanese general who demands a public display of karate versus kung fu.

Tough Situations

Bubba's (Patrick John Flueger) unemployed and trying to find a way to make a living and marry Taryn Manning, when an affable stranger (Ron Perlman) gives him a lead in The Job. Bubba passes the interview with the employment (Joe Pantoliano) and gets the job... but only later finds out what the job actually is: he has to strangle a man to death. With Mark Harelik and Gregory Itzin.
Robert Hansen, a disgraced Copenhagen cop, gets sent to be the marshall of a small town in the Danish Terribly Happy. The town is peculiar and doesn't trust outsiders, especially as Robert starts looking into abuses and violence that the town has grown accustomed to ignoring. Hansen walks through a strange noir landscape, with petty thugs and femme fatales, but the complications of a small town could eat a city man alive.

A troubled director travels to Romania to remake a long lost horror film in Don't Look Up, but the sensitivity to horrors and lingering spirits that make him such a successful filmmaker could be the reason his crew keeps dropping off, one by one. The set may be haunted, or the director insane, but the dead keep piling up (and with Eli Roth involved, there's sure to be some eye trauma). With Henry Thomas and Kevin Corrigan.
Tom Selleck returns as Jesse Stone in No Remorse, suspended from his job as police chief, now moonlighting for the State Homicide Commander (Stephen McHattie) and investigating a series of Boston murders. When Stone's investigation leads him to a mob boss (William Sadler), his freelancing job suddenly becomes deadly serious. With Kathy Baker.

Dramatic

Giovanna Mezzogiorno stars as Ida Dalsar, the mistress (and later, wife) of Benito Mussolini, in the Italian Vincere. Following their relationship from 1914, when she is well off and he is an impoverished activist, through their estrangement during the war years, and to their reunion. Since Mussolini had remarried, he had Dalsar erased from his past, and the film follows the dark and tragic life he left for her.

The story of a 14 year old girl from a small Bahamian island, Rain sends the girl in search of her mother after her grandmother dies. When Rain arrives in the city and finds her mother (Nicki Micheaux) living as a prostitute, she must adapt to a more dangerous and violent world than she's known, but finds support at school from a track coach (CCH Pounder) who sees a future for the girl that the world would otherwise deny her.

Husband and wife Marthe (Isabelle Huppert) and Michel (Olivier Gourmet) live with their three children in a remote house at the end of a dead end road in the French Home, where they live an idyllic life in a world all their own. A new motorway plows its way through their lives and upsets the balance of their secluded lives, and where they were once free to do whatever they liked, they are now almost aliens in a world of traffic, pollution, and passers-by.

Timothy (Tanner Cohen) is an openly gay senior at a private boy's school in Were the World Mine, and his sexuality brings confrontation with his mother and abuse from the boy he has a crush on: the aggressive captain of the rugby team. When his drama teacher (Wendy Robie) casts him as Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, he finds a recipe for a spell that will cause the homophobic townsfolk to see the world through Timothy's eyes.

Lifetime & Disney

Mae Whitman is a senior in Lifetime's Acceptance, submitting to ivy league schools and hoping for the bright future her mother (Joan Cusack) is pushing her toward, but she's drifted away from being an overachiever and started to rebel. When she sees her friends obsess about their test scores and their schools, she begins to understand that true acceptance is harder to find than ACT scores.

Adapting the popular Disney Channel show, the Wizards of Waverly Place movie sends the magical Russo family (including Selena Gomez and Jake T. Austin) on vacation in the Caribbean, but a spell gone wrong threatens the entire family's existence, and the kids have to find a way to undo the harm and save their family.


A documentary about a 25 billion dollar art collection, The Art of the Steal is about the Barnes Art Collection. The film discusses the powerful players in Philadelphia and their efforts to break Arthur C. Barnes's will, which was drawn up specifically to keep the art in his home/museum, and away from the institutionalized art world he despised.


New this week to Reckless Video's TV New Releases are the second half of season 1 of the Stargate spinoff, Stargate Universe, as well as the complete Sharpe's series, starring Sean Bean. We also have the the first season of the parody of instructional science videos Look Around You, and the romance Wallis & Edward. Finally, the animated Batman: Under the Red Hood is new this week pitting the Dark Knight against a masked villain who knows his every move.
[X]Joan Cusack:
My Sister's Keeper, School of Rock
[X]Sam Worthington:
Avatar, Terminator Salvation
[X]Liam Neeson:
Michael Collins, Chloe
[X]Ralph Finnes:
The Reader, Schindler's List
[X]Jason Flemyng:
Mirrors, Layer Cake
[X]Gemma Arterton:
St Trinian's, Pirate Radio
[X]Alexa Davalos:
The Mist, Chronicles of Riddick
[X]Henry Thomas:
Dead Birds, Gangs of New York
[X]Kevin Corrigan:
Big Fan, The Last Winter
[X]Isabelle Huppert:
I Heart Huckabees, Time of the Wolf
[X]Olivier Gourmet:
Lorna's Silence, L' enfant
[X]Donnie Yen:
Kill Zone, Hero
[X]Tom Selleck:
In & Out, Mr. Baseball
[X]Kathy Baker:
Last Chance Harvey, Cold Mountain
[X]Stephen McHattie:
Pontypool, The Fountain
[X]William Sadler:
Eagle Eye, The Shawshank Redemption
[X]Patrick John Flueger:
Brothers, The World's Fastest Indian
[X]Taryn Manning:
The Devil's Tomb, Hustle & Flow
[X]Joe Pantoliano:
The Matrix, Memento
[X]Mark Harelik:
Election, Timer
[X]Gregory Itzin:
I Know Who Killed Me, Law Abiding Citizen
[X]Joe Anderson:
Across the Universe, The Crazies
[X]Rob Corddry:
Hot Tub Time Machine, Blades of Glory
[X]Odette Yustman:
Cloverfield, The Unborn
[X]Zach Galifianakis:
Youth in Revolt, The Hangover
[X]Emilie de Ravin:
Lost, Brick
[X]Ellen Barkin:
Brooklyn's Finest, This Boy's Life
[X]Bob Odenkirk:
Mr. Show with Bob and David, Breaking Bad
[X]Nicki Micheaux:
Their Eyes Were Watching God, My Giant
[X]CCH Pounder:
The Orphan, Benny & Joon
[X]Jude Law:
Sherlock Holmes, Alfie
[X]Forest Whitaker:
The Last King of Scotland, Our Family Wedding
[X]Alice Braga:
I Am Legend, Redbelt
[X]Liev Schreiber:
The Manchurian Candidate, X-Men Origins: Wolverine
[X]Carice van Houten:
Valkyrie, Black Book
[X]Giovanna Mezzogiorno:
Love in the Time of Cholera, The Last Kiss
[X]Tanner Cohen:
The Life Before Her Eyes
[X]Wendy Robie
The Attic Expeditions, Twin Peaks
[X]Jake T. Austin:
Hotel for Dogs, The Perfect Game



Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Week of July 20th

Heists

Betrayed by their superiors and framed as murderers, a special operations team fakes their own deaths and goes underground in the comic book adaptation The Losers. Hiding in South America, the team's leader (Jeffery Dean Morgan) reunites the group, including his icy second-in command (Idris Elba), their wise-cracking hacker (Chris Evans), silent and mysterious sniper (Oscar Jaenada), and easy-going pilot (Columbus Short), when a stranger with a grudge (Zoe Saldana) offers them a chance to clear their names and take their revenge on the man who ruined their lives: a mysterious evil genius known only as Max (Jason Patric). Now the team has to return to the USA, infiltrate a private army, and return with proof of their innocence... even though they know they might be embarking on a suicide mission. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Jean Reno stars as the godfather of an Armenian crime family in the French Ultimate Heist, ruling the underground with an iron fist and grooming Anton (Gaspard Ulliel), his son and heir, to take over his empire. Anton dreams of freedom and a life outside of his father's empire, but there never seemed to be a way out of his criminal family... until he meets a cop dedicated to ending his family's violent stranglehold on the underground.
A tribute to the 1980's "buddy cop" action/comedy movies, Kevin Smith's Cop Out stars Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan as partnered detectives in the NYPD. Needing money to pay for his daughter's (Michelle Trachtenberg) wedding, Willis is going to sell a rare and incredibly valuable baseball card... which is immediately stolen. The partners go rogue to get the card back from a sports collectibles obsessed gangster (Guillermo Diaz) in a tribute their buddy cop history, from the synthesized score to the angry tirades of their police chief. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Imports

Mother is the newest film by Korean director Bong Joon-Ho, about a woman who lives alone with her mentally handicapped son (Won Bin) who is arrested when a the police find circumstantial evidence linking him to murdered girl. Convinced her son is not a murderer, the mother is determined to follow every clue that could reveal the real killer.

We also have Bong Joon-Ho's directorial debut, Barking Dogs Never Bite, a satirical take on A Dog of Flanders, which tells the story of a man who kidnaps the barking dogs that annoy him in his neighborhood, and the young woman (Bae Doo-Na) who investigates her neighbors' complaints about missing dogs.

Aardman Animation brings us the Belgian A Town Called Panic, a surreal stop-motion comedy starring three plastic toys, Cowboy, Indian, and Horse, who share an adventure that takes them everywhere from the center of the earth to a parallel underwater dimension.

Music

The story of the influential all-girl rock band from the 1970s, The Runaways focuses on the band's formation, with guitarist Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart) and drummer Sandy West (Stella Maeve), and their introduction to their instantly iconic singer, fifteen-year-old Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning). Assembled and guided by manager Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon), The Runaways become a success and tour the world, but fame and success come with a price, and threatens to destroy Currie before they become household names. With Scout Taylor-Compton. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Covering the period in the 1970s when the Rolling Stones left England, Stones in Exile recounts the recording of Exile on Main St, as the expatriates worked on moving ahead with the band, recording in the basement of Keith Richards' villa. The film documents the mood and lifestyle of the band as they write and record far from home, and the impact it had on their work.
Jeff Goldblum plays an entertainer, musician, and clown in an institution for holocaust survivors in Paul Schrader's Adam Resurrected. Burdened by his guilt and memories of surviving the concentration camps by entertaining the Commandant (Willem Dafoe) and his wife by being their "dog," he attempts to reclaim his humanity when he meets a kindred spirit. With Derek Jacobi and Ayelet Zurer.

Non-Fiction

A documentary about a government official and strategist during the Viet Nam war, The Most Dangerous Man in America is the story of Daniel Ellsberg, and his experience with White House politics. Slowly coming to the realization that several Presidents had lied to the citizens and Congress, Ellsberg released top secret research to the public and press to try and stop the war in Viet Nam. His trial and notoriety with The Pentagon Papers created precedents for freedom of the press, influenced the course of the war, and had a direct impact on the events at the Watergate hotel.

Nollywood Babylon documents the Nigerian film industry, the third largest film industry in the world (behind the US and India). Making films with small budgets, Nigerian filmmakers make original films from African perspectives in action, comedy, horror, and romance genres, within a culture that is both steeped in ancient traditions and influenced by the modernity of the west.

A film about an unconventional family, Prodigal Sons was made by director Kimberly Reed (formerly Paul McKerrow, highschool quarterback and star of the school) as she returns home in hopes of reconnecting with her adopted brother Marc. The dynamic of the family unfolds as Marc's increasingly unpredictable mental state takes its toll on the situation, and the reactions to both Kim's transformation and Marc's background and birth parents.

Horror

The violent horror/comedy 2001 Maniacs: Field of Screams invites northerners to the Guts 'n' Glory jamboree... though the citizens of Pleasant Valley use the festival to kill yankees. Taking vengeance for the Civil War deaths of their townsfolk, the mayor (Bill Moseley) takes his revenge jamboree on the road, in hopes of killing two thousand and one northerners, in a gore-filled quest for "an eye for an eye" style revenge. With Lin Shaye.

Maurice, a young boy, has the ability to communicate with the dead, connected to the other side by his dead twin, Jacques. In The Shadow Within, Maurice is encouraged by his mother to be a medium, which allows Jacques to start taking control of his brother's body... and he wants what any boy would want: for his family to be with him.


New this week to Reckless Video's TV New Releases are the first season of the BBC supernatural drama Being Human and the complete period drama Lark Rise to Candleford.
[X]Paul Schrader:
The Walker, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
[X]Jeff Goldblum:
Igby Goes Down, Jurassic Park
[X]Derek Jacobi:
Gladiator, Endgame
[X]Ayelet Zurer:
Munich, Angels & Demons
[X]Bae Doo-Na:
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Linda Linda Linda
[X]Won Bin:
Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War
[X]Bong Joon-Ho:
The Host, Tokyo!
[X]Kevin Smith:
Chasing Amy, Zack & Miri Make a Porno
[X]Bruce Willis:
Hart's War, Surrogates
[X]Tracy Morgan:
30 Rock, First Sunday
[X]Guillermo Diaz:
Weeds, The Terminal
[X]Michelle Trachtenberg:
17 Again, EuroTrip
[X]Jeffery Dean Morgan:
Kabluey, Watchmen
[X]Zoe Saldana:
Avatar, Star Trek
[X]Chris Evans:
Sunshine, Push
[X]Idris Elba:
American Gangster, The Wire
[X]Columbus Short:
Stomp the Yard, Armored
[X]Jason Patric:
The Alamo, The Lost Boys
[X]Orson Welles:
The Trial, F Is for Fake
[X]Kristen Stewart:
Adventureland, The Cake Eaters
[X]Dakota Fanning:
Coraline, I Am Sam
[X]Stella Maeve:
Brooklyn's Finest, Transamerica
[X]Scout Taylor-Compton:
Halloween, Wicked Little Things
[X]Rolling Stones:
Shine a Light, Gimme Shelter
[X]Jean Reno:
Wasabi, Couples, Retreat!
[X]Gaspard Ulliel:
A Very Long Engagement, Brotherhood of the Wolf
[X]Aardman Animation:
Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run
[X]Willem Dafoe:
The English Patient, Wild at Heart


Monday, July 12, 2010

Week of July 13

Bad Attitudes

Recovering from a nervous breakdown and just released from an institution, Roger Greenberg (Ben Stiller) returns to Los Angeles in Noah Baumbach's Greenberg. Returning from New York to take care of his brother's (Chris Messina) house, Greenberg's trying to spend some time "doing nothing," he reconnects with his old friend and former bandmate (Rhys Ifans) and tracks down an old flame (Jennifer Jason Leigh), but his general malaise and unshakable bad attitude could drive away everyone in his life, even his new girlfriend (Greta Gerwig) who tolerates his lashing out because she believes there is a tender heart behind it all. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

A down-on-his-luck bounty hunter (Gerard Butler) gets the bonus of tracking down his bail jumping ex-wife (Jennifer Aniston) in the action/romance/comedy The Bounty Hunter, but trouble always breaks out any time the two of them are together. Worse, she's a reporter on the tail of a dangerous criminal, and he's an ex-cop that could actually help her with the case... if he's willing to take her anywhere but jail. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

When her mother (Susan Sarandon) overdraws a credit card in her name, Grace (Eva Amurri) has her tuition loans declined and gets a low paying job at a water park in Middle of Nowhere. At work, she meets a charismatic marijuana dealer (Anton Yelchin)and suddenly has the ability to raise tuition money by the end of the summer, but all of the pieces of her family and social life are in danger of flying apart. With Justin Chatwin and Scott A. Martin.

A failed gambler (Steve Buscemi) leaves Vegas to start a normal life in Albuquerque in Saint John of Las Vegas. His boss (Peter Dinklage) at the auto insurance company offers him a promotion: he'll go on the road investigating fraudulent claims with the company's most merciless investigator (Romany Malco), but the case will take him back to the home of his worst weaknesses: Las Vegas. With Sarah Silverman.

Robert, an out of work musician (David Thornton) barely getting by in New York, takes an odd job moving furniture with Branko, a Serbian immigrant, who offers him a way to make some quick money: Robert will fly to Serbia and marry Branko's girlfriend so that she can legally emigrate to the United States in Here & There, but his time in Serbia isn't quite what he bargained for.

13-year-old Esther is an outcast in her private school in Hey Hey, It's Esther Blueburger, so she lies her way into public school, under the wing of rebellious bad girl Sunni (Keisha Castle-Hughes). Esther uses her new school, new attitude, and new friends to throw off her awkward, picked-on persona... though the new Esther might be more popular, she could be losing everything that made her a decent girl. With Toni Collette.

Marital Strife

Alan and Grace Brewer (Pierce Brosnan and Susan Sarandon) are a couple grieving the loss of their son (Aaron Johnson) in The Greatest, when a young woman (Carey Mulligan) arrives, pregnant with their grandchild. At first, she seems to be making a hard time even more difficult for the family in turmoil, but eventually the new member of the family helps them all survive the mourning process. With Johnny Simmons. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Catherine (Julianne Moore) suspects her husband (Liam Neeson), who has become distant and inattentive, of having an affair, so she hires a call girl (Amanda Seyfried) to test his faithfulness in Atom Egoyan's Chloe. Though Catherine is devastated by Chloe's report of the liaison, they continue their arrangement as the two women form a strange relationship over their husband/client.

When America Ferrera and Lance Gross are preparing for their wedding in Our Family Wedding, they have to survive their families' meddling in their big day as their assertive, alpha-male fathers (Carlos Mencia and Forest Whitaker) each vie for control, and the bride's mother (Regina King) is designing the wedding more to her taste than to her daughter's. With Diana Maria Riva.

Animated

When dragon hunter Lian-Chu (Forest Whitaker) and his manager/oldest friend Gwizdo (Rob Paulsen) rescue a little girl (Mary Matilyn Mouser) from a pair of small dragons, they find themselves on an epic quest to slay the mightiest beast of all in Dragon Hunters. With the girl tagging along, they journey through a surreal landscape to stop the World Gobbler, an enormous dragon that could destroy the kingdom and possibly the world.

The newest Spongebob Squarepants movie is Triton's Revenge, where Spongebob gathers King Neptune's whole family together for the King's birthday... but he didn't know that Neptune and his son, Triton, don't get along, which makes for a big birthday surprise.


A young girl is found dead in a small Italian village in The Girl by the Lake, and a detective (Toni Servillo) from the city is called in to investigate. After a series of dead ends, the investigation seems to be going nowhere... but is the insular community conspiring to keep the truth hidden from the outsider?


The two new documentaries this week are 8: The Mormon Proposition, an expose on the influence of the Mormon organization on the proposition that states "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California," and PBS' Buddhist documentary The Buddha, narrated by Richard Gere.


New this week to Reckless Video's TV New Releases are the third and final season of Saving Grace and the debut season of the con man/crime drama White Collar. We also have the complete miniseries The Singing Detective, and Volume 18 of Mystery Science Theater 3000, which includes Lost Continent, Crash of the Moons, The Beast of Yucca Flats, and Jack Frost.

[X]Jennifer Aniston:
Love Happens, Management
[X]Richard Gere:
The Squid & the Whale, Margot at the Wedding
[X]Richard Gere:
Brooklyn's Finest, Runaway Bride
[X]Atom Egoyan:
The Sweet Hereafter, Ararat
[X]Julianne Moore:
A Single Man, Laws of Attraction
[X]Amanda Seyfried:
Jennifer's Body, Big Love
[X]Forest Whitaker:
The Air I Breathe, Panic Room
[X]Mary Matilyn Mouser:
Bride Wars, Delgo
[X]Rob Paulsen:
A Goofy Movie, Barnyard
[X]Toni Servillo:
Il Divo, Gomorrah
[X]Carey Mulligan:
An Education, Brothers
[X]Aaron Johnson:
The Thief Lord, Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging
[X]Susan Sarandon:
Thelma & Louise, Speed Racer
[X]Ben Stiller:
The Cable Guy, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
[X]Greta Gerwig:
Baghead
[X]Rhys Ifans:
Human Nature, Hannibal Rising
[X]Jennifer Jason Leigh:
The Jacket, Single White Female
[X]David Thornton:
My Sister's Keeper, The Notebook
[X]Keisha Castle-Hughes:
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, The Nativity Story
[X]Toni Collette:
The Hours, Little Miss Sunshine
[X]Anton Yelchin:
Star Trek, Hearts in Atlantis
[X]Eva Amurri:
The Banger Sisters, New York, I Love You
[X]Justin Chatwin:
The Chumscrubber, War of the Worlds
[X]Scott A. Martin:
Smart People, The Watcher
[X]America Ferrera:
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Lords of Dogtown
[X]Carlos Mencia:
The Heartbreak Kid, Farce of the Penguins
[X]Regina King:
Year of the Dog, Enemy of the State
[X]Diana Maria Riva:
Chasing Papi, Employee of the Month
[X]Steve Buscemi:
Ghost World, The Messenger
[X]Romany Malco:
Weeds, Baby Mama
[X]Sarah Silverman:
School of Rock, School for Scoundrels
[X]Peter Dinklage:
Penelope, The Station Agent

Friday, July 9, 2010

Save the Youth Center

  • Ali G Indahouse
  • Animal House
  • Arthur & The Invisibles
  • Babysitter's Club
  • Batteries Not Included
  • Be Kind Rewind
  • The Blues Brothers
  • Brady Bunch: The Movie
  • Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo
  • Chinatown
  • The Country Bears
  • Daddy Day Camp
  • Dodgeball
  • Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along  Blog
  • Empire Records
  • Field Of Dreams
  • Goodburger
  • Goonies
  • Hannah Montana: The Movie
  • Herbie  Rides Again
  • Hey Arnold! The Movie
  • Hoot
  • The House Bunny
  • Indian Summer
  • Joe's Apartment
  • Little Rascals
  • The Majestic
  • Milagro Beanfield War
  • My Blue Heaven
  • National Lampoon’s Last Resort
  • Old School
  • Once Upon A Time In The West
  • One Crazy Summer
  • PCU
  • Superman
  • Superman Returns
  • There Will Be Blood
  • Tommy Boy
  • Two Weeks Notice
  • Who Framed Roger Rabbit
  • Xanadu

Spotlight On... Real Estate Gone Bad

There are many villainous archetypes that pop up in the movies-- neglected underdogs seeking revenge, spurned heroes turned to villainy, misguided samaritans whose plans for a better world do more harm than good... all of these baddies combined can't hold a candle to
(dun dun dun!)

Evil real estate deals!



This should be a no-brainer: Lex Luthor is doing battle with arguably the most powerful superhero ever in both Superman and Superman Returns simply because he has an evil, evil real estate scheme... and he is Superman's arch nemesis.


Lex Luthor doesn't even begin to scratch the surface-- he and his ilk are always closing down the family farm, the youth center, the orphanage, or the family business, which invariably causes a group of plucky underdogs to raise enough money to save the day. How they raise the money depends on the types of misfit: if it's the group of street dancers in Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo, there must be a way to dance up the money, but a pair of video store clerks about to go out of business in Be Kind Rewind are bound to start a DIY business re-imagining movies. Of course the Blues Brothers set out on a Homeric Odyssey to reunite the band and play a concert to save their orphanage.


There aren't always a group of misfits to raise money to stop these plots... movies like Chinatown and There Will Be Blood center around high stakes land developments, but neither of them end with a fundraisers or dance numbers.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Week of July 6th

A Day in the Life

Collin Firth stars in A Single Man as George Falconer, a middle aged college professor in 1962. Mourning the loss of his partner (Matthew Goode) in a car accident, the film takes place over the course of one day in Falconer's life as he deals with both his own personal losses and the changing world around him (including the culture of fear induced by the looming Cuban Missile Crisis), and makes plans for a future he may not be able to embrace. With Julianne Moore and Nicholas Hoult. On DVD and Blu-Ray.


Oscar-winning director Antoine Fuqua's Brooklyn's Finest is an ensemble crime drama set in the high-crime Brownsville district of Brooklyn, and moral grey areas in which the police have to operate. Mixing the stories of a detective (Ethan Hawke) who's started taking criminals' money to support his wife (Lili Taylor), a burnt out officer (Richard Gere) doing the bare minimum until his retirement in one week, and an undercover detective (Don Cheadle) struggling with his job inside the drug trade alongside his wrong-side-of-the-law oldest friend (Wesley Snipes), the film intertwines all three officers' stories as they all chose their difficult paths. With Ellen Barkin. On DVD and Blu Ray.

A disgraced investigative journalist (Michael Nyqvist) is hired to find a missing girl in the Swedish The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Set on the investigation by a powerful family and aided by a troubled girl (with the titular tattoo), their search for the missing girl leads them down a violent, twisted, and perverse path into a dark underworld that may already have claimed many lives.

An English language adaptation of Run Lola Run, And Then Came Lola finds Lola late for a meeting that could cost her everything: her job, her life, and her girlfriend. The high energy comedy sends her to get to the meeting three times, as each try has a different ending because of tiny variables, and each journey through the story uncovers a little more about Lola.

Ian McKellen tackles one of Shakespeare's most challenging characters in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production on King Lear, where the elderly king offers to divide his kingdom between his three daughters, the power hungry Goneril (Frances Barber), the selfish Regan (Monica Dolan), and the honest and faithful Cordelia (Romola Garai), and the epic tragedy of madness and betrayal that follows.

A 14-year-old boy, his friend, and his dog are searching for Conquistadors' buried treasure in the family-friendly The Gold Retrievers, but they have to outpace the robber (Steve Guttenberg) and professor (Curtis Armstrong) who are willing do to whatever it takes to win the treasure. With Billy Zane.

Our concerts and documentaries this week are Tom DiCillo's documentary When You're Strange: A Film About the Doors, the documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, and standup comedian Lewis Black's live performance Stark Raving Black.


New this week to Reckless Video's TV New Releases are the debut seasons of the Canadian tactical police series Flashpoint and and the criminal/con artist series Leverage. We also have the 4th series of the medial comedy drama Doc Martin, season 7 of Project Runay, and the BBC nature series Last Chance to See. Finally, Reckless Video has picked up the entirety of the Inspector Morse series, completing our collection of that show, and we have season 2 of the insanely popular True Blood on Blu Ray.
[X]Antoine Fuqua:
Training Day, King Arthur
[X]Ethan Hawke:
Before Sunrise, Daybreakers
[X]Lili Taylor:
The Promotion, I Shot Andy Warhol
[X]Richard Gere:
Unfaithful, Amelia
[X]Don Cheadle:
Crash, Hotel for Dogs
[X]Wesley Snipes:
Blade, New Jack City
[X]Ellen Barkin:
Drop Dead Gorgeous, Happy Tears
[X]Michael Nyqvist:
Downloading Nancy, Together
[X]Billy Zane:
Fish Tales, Demon Knight
[X]Steve Guttenberg:
Home for the Holidays, Short Circuit
[X]Curtis Armstrong:
Revenge of the Nerds, Southland Tales
[X]Ian McKellen:
Six Degrees of Separation, Lord of the Rings
[X]Frances Barber:
Goal!, Evilenko
[X]Monica Dolan:
Tipping the Velvet, Topsy Turvy
[X]Romola Garai:
Scoop, Atonement
[X]Lewis Black:
Man of the Year, Hannah and Her Sisters
[X]Colin Firth:
The English Patient, St Trinian's
[X]Matthew Goode:
The Lookout, Imagine Me & You
[X]Julianne Moore:
The Forgotten, Cookie's Fortune
[X]Nicholas Hoult:
About a Boy, The Weather Man
[X]Tom DiCillo:
Living in Oblivion, The Real Blonde