Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Week of August 3rd

Ultra-Violence

A comics obsessed teenager (Aaron Johnson) decides to reinvent himself as a superhero in Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass. Without superpowers, he buys a costume and sets out to fight crime on the city streets and becomes famous enough to catch the attention of two heroes already fighting crime: the Batman-like Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and the assassin Hit-Girl (Chloe Moretz), his 11-year-old daughter. Kick-Ass gets more than he bargained for when he teams up with Big Daddy and Hit Girl-- they are at war with a dangerous gangster (Mark Strong), Kick-Ass has to deal with the switch from petty street crime to heavy weapons, mob bosses, torture, and extreme violence. With Lyndsy Fonseca and Christopher Mintz-Plasse. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Middle School

Our family-friendly film this week takes Greg (Zachary Gordon) to his first experience with middle-school in Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Telling his story through his journal (not a diary, he insists), Greg is one of the smallest boys in his class and saddled with a childish best friend (Robert Capron) as he tries to navigate the bullies and social cliques of 6th grade. Constantly picked on by his big brother (Devon Bostick) and befriended by an outcast 7th grader (Chloe Moretz), Greg sees another approach to middle school, and begins a campaign to become a "class favorite" that could win him great popularity... but at what cost? On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Lies, Secrets, and Mysteries

Ewan McGregor is a successful ghostwriter in Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer, hired to finish the memoirs of a former British Prime Minister (Pierce Brosnan), but the day he arrives, the former Prime Minister is accused of war crimes. Sequestered in an island estate with the Prime Minister, the PM's wife (Olivia Williams) and assistant (Kim Cattrall), the writer's research begins to uncover mysteries of the Prime Minister's history, and the clandestine movements that could prove his guilt or innocence. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Christina Ricci wakes up on a mortician's (Liam Neeson) table in After.Life, but she has already been pronounced dead. The mystery unfolds as the mortician tells her that she is talking because of his gift: he can speak with the dead, and has spent his life helping souls to move on from one life to the next... but is he really a supernatural man, or is she still alive and being held captive by a deranged killer who intends to bury her alive? With Justin Long.

As part of her impending divorce, Rachel Blanchard is selling her home in Open House, but finds herself drugged and tied to a chair in the basement by a psychotic couple (Brian Geraghty and Tricia Helfer) who use the on-the-market home to lure victims to their deaths. Not sure how long she'll be allowed to live, she detects a secret between the killers that could lead to her freedom-- if she can get away before a knife gets turned on her. With True Blood's Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer.


Prison

Brian Cox is serving a life sentence without hope of ever seeing the outside world again in The Escapist when he receives dire news about his 14-year-old daughter; if he's to save his little girl, he has to plan a daring prison break with his closest friend (Liam Cunningham), a thief and bare-knuckle boxer (Joseph Fiennes), and the prison chemist (Seu Jorge). When his new cellmate (Dominic Cooper) attracts the attention of the prison's vicious alpha dog (Damian Lewis), the escalating conflict between the groups of prisoners could ruin any chance of escape.

Malik is sentenced to six years in prison in A Prophet, where he is isolated, powerless, and illiterate. Upon his arrival he's taken in by Luciani (Niels Arestrup), the leader of a Corsican mafia group, and ordered to kill. Luciani arranges day leaves for Malik as he grows more important, sending him to conduct missions for the Corsicans in the outside world, but as Malik becomes more powerful, he also gets more ambitious.

Based on a True Story

Based on a 1970 racial murder in North Carolina, Blood Done Sign My Name recounts the murder of a black man and the acquittal of the accused by an all-white jury, an event that helped initiate racial upheaval and change in Viet Nam era southern America. With Omar Benson Miller, Rick Schroder, and Rhoda Griffis.

Released by the Criterion Collection, the Swedish Everlasting Moments tells the story of Maria Larsson. Set in the early 1900s, Maria is poor and married to an abusive man, but claims a new lease on life when she wins a camera in the lottery. Though the camera could be sold to help her desperate financial situation, it lets her see the world in a new way and begins her artistic life.


New this week to Reckless Video's TV New Releases are all four seasons of the BBC's The Last Detective as well as the fourth season of the superhero drama Heroes. We also have the miniseries Stephen Fry in America, where Englishman Stephen Fry travels through all 50 states to familiarize himself with our national culture.

[X]Christina Ricci:
Penelope, Prozac Nation
[X]Liam Neeson:
Rob Roy, Clash of the Titans
[X]Justin Long:
Jeepers Creepers, Youth in Revolt
[X]Michael Rooker:
Super Capers, Mallrats
[X]Omar Benson Miller:
The Express, Shall We Dance
[X]Rick Schroder:
Crimson Tide, Poolhall Junkies
[X]Rhoda Griffis:
The Blind Side, Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius
[X]Devon Bostick:
Land of the Dead, Adoration
[X]Brian Cox:
Trick 'r Treat, Manhunter
[X]Joseph Fiennes:
Enemy at the Gates, Running with Scissors
[X]Seu Jorge:
City of God, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
[X]Dominic Cooper:
An Education, The History Boys
[X]Damian Lewis:
Life, Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker
[X]Roman Polanski:
Chinatown, Bitter Moon
[X]Ewan McGregor:
Down with Love, The Men Who Stare at Goats
[X]Pierce Brosnan:
Seraphim Falls, Remember Me
[X]Kim Cattrall:
Ice Princess, Sex & the City
[X]Matthew Vaughn:
Stardust, Layer Cake
[X]Aaron Johnson:
The Thief Lord, The Greatest
[X]Lyndsy Fonseca:
Hot Tub Time Machine, How I Met Your Mother
[X]Christopher Mintz-Plasse:
Role Models, Superbad
[X]Chloe Moretz:
(500) Days of Summer, Wicked Little Things
[X]Nicolas Cage:
Bad Lieutenant - Port of Call: New Orleans, World Trade Center
[X]Rachel Blanchard:
Spread, Where the Truth Lies
[X]Brian Geraghty:
The Hurt Locker, Art School Confidential
[X]Tricia Helfer:
Battlestar Galactica, Spiral
[X]Niels Arestrup:
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The Beat That My Heart Skipped

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