Week of November 2nd

Growing up and moving on

David's Toy Story 3 Review

When Toy Story came out in 1995, I was 9 years old. For the sake of full disclosure, when the film ended I really did believe that toys came alive when I left the room. This of course led to a series of elaborate schemes in which I intended to catch the toys in the act. As you would expect, they never moved from where I had left them. It’s not that I was an incredibly gullible child. I just wanted to have friends like Woody and Buzz.

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With Andy grown up and heading to college, there's no room in his life for the toys he loved when he was small in Pixar's Toy Story 3. The toys hope they'll be put in the attic and played with once Andy has kids of his own, but a mix-up sends Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) and the gang to a day care center. Welcomed by a stuffed bear (Ned Beatty) and a Ken doll (Michael Keaton), the toys are excited to play with kids again, but the day care may not be all it seems, and they have one more epic adventure ahead of them. On DVD and Blu Ray.

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Following Band of Brothers, the HBO mini-series The Pacific focuses on the US actions in the Pacific Theater during World War II, telling stories of US Marines and their battles throughout the region, from Guadalcanal to Okinawa to Iwo Jima. Over the course of 10 episodes and epic scope, the series keeps up with the cocky and rouguish Robert Leckie (James Badge Dale), the Medal of Honor winning John Basilone (Jon Seda), and the driven Eugene Sledge (Joseph Mazzello) as they struggle to survive an unglamorized and hellish war. On DVD and Blu Ray.

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Roman Centurion Quintus Dias (Michael Fassbender) is the only survivor of a Pict raid on his outpost in Neil Marshall's Centurion. Determined to wipe out the hordes that haunt the north or what would become the British Isles, Dias guides General Titus Flavius Virilus (Dominic West) and the legendary 9th Legion into battle, only to have the legion destroyed, the general captured, and himself isolated in Pict territory. Hunted by an unstoppable tracker (Ogla Kurylenko), Diaz has to lead the few surviving soldiers (including David Morrissey, JJ Feild, and Noel Clarke) to rescue the general and return to Roman-controlled land... but the cold and snow are formidable, wolves are on the prowl, and the the Picts are driven to ensure the 9th Legion has no survivors. On DVD and Blu Ray.

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Aside from being a playful take on Hamlet, this is probably the only time you'll ever get to see Devon Aoki (who wasn't given any lines at all as the mute assassin Miho in Sin City) recite Shakespeare.

Jake Hoffman is a directionless slacker who finds himself directing an unorthodox version of Hamlet in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Undead. With a job and some pull in the theater, he gives the role of Hamlet to his best friend (Kris Lemche) and uses the part of Ophelia to win back his ex-girlfriend (Devon Aoki). Unforunately, the playwright (John Ventimiglia) is a vampire, and the show has a harder time going on when the cast is in constant danger of being eaten.

Slaughter High is an entry into the giddy and terrible horror movies that will (unintentionally) generate more laughs than screams... a must for Troll 2 fans.

A slasher film from the 80's, Slaughter High sees a prank go awry, leaving the class nerd and butt of popular kids' jokes burned and disfigured. When the pranksters (including Bond Girl Caroline Munro and Billy Hartman) reunite for their 10 year anniversary, they're the only people at their old, abandoned school. When they start dying off one by one, they find the doors locked, sitting ducks for vicious revenge.

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Also new this week is a Blu Ray of Robert Wise's classic musical The Sound of Music, where free spirit Maria (Julie Andrews) is sent to be a governess for a strict and militant widower (Christopher Plummer) and his seven children. Based on the true story of the von Trap family's escape from Nazi expansion, their love of music, and coming together as a family.

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Based on the 1983 miniseries, the first season of V sees aliens, led by Morena Baccarin, landing on earth and guaranteeing peace for everyone, though an FBI agent (Elizabeth Mitchell) and priest (Joel Gretsch) have their doubts... as the aliens' true nature come to light over the course of season 1, the cast is fleshed out from a veritable who's who of television actors, including Morris Chesnut and Laura Vandervoort.

Finally, the second season of Star Wars: Clone Wars continues the adventures of Jedi Knights Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor) during the years between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith as the seperatists wage war against the Galactic Republic.

[X]Neil Marshall:
Doomsday, The Descent

[X]Michael Fassbender:
Inglourious Basterds, Jonah Hex

[X]Dominic West:
Chicago, Punisher: War Zone

[X]David Morrissey:
The Red Riding Trilogy, Captain Corelli's Mandolin

[X]Noel Clarke:
Doctor Who, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead

[X]JJ Feild:
Blood: The Last Vampire, K-19: The Widowmaker

[X]Ogla Kurylenko:
Quantum of Solace, Hitman

[X]Jake Hoffman:
Liberty Heights, Click

[X]Devon Aoki:
Sin City, Mutant Chronicles

[X]John Ventimiglia:
Trees Lounge, Jesus' Son

[X]Kris Lemche:
Final Destination 3, My Little Eye

[X]Caroline Munro:
To Die For, The Spy Who Loved Me

[X]Billy Hartman:
A Touch of Frost, Highlander

[X]Robert Wise:
West Side Story, Star Trek: The Motion Picture

[X]Julie Andrews:
Unconditional Love, S.O.B.

[X]Christopher Plummer:
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Somewhere in Time

[X]Pixar:
Monsters Inc, Up

[X]Tom Hanks:
Sleepless in Seattle, Charlie Wilson's War

[X]Tim Allen:
Who Is Cletis Tout?, The Six Wives of Henry Lefay

[X]Ned Beatty:
Network, The Killer Inside Me

[X]Michael Keaton:
The Dream Team, The Merry Gentleman

[X]Joseph Mazzello:
Raising Helen, Jurassic Park

[X]James Badge Dale:
The Departed, The Black Donnellys

[X]Jon Seda:
Bad Boys II, Primal Fear

[X]Elizabeth Mitchell:
Lost, Frequency

[X]Morris Chesnut:
Ladder 49, The Game Plan

[X]Joel Gretsch:
The 4400, Shrink

[X]Laura Vandervoort:
The Lookout, Smallville

[X]Morena Baccarin:
Firefly, Stargate SG-1

[X]Matt Lanter:
Sorority Row, Disaster Movie

[X]James Arnold Taylor:
The Animatrix, TMNT

[X]Jessica Lowndes:
The Haunting of Molly Hartley, Autopsy

[X]Julianna Guill:
Friday the 13th, Fired Up!

[X]Ryan Donowho:
A Home at the End of the World, Bandslam

[X]Ana de la Reguera:
Eastbound & Down, Cop Out

[X]Joaqui Cosio:
Rudo y Cursi, Quantum of Solace

[X]Jimmy Smits:
The Believers, Lackawanna Blues

[X]Hugh O'Conor:
Botched, The Young Poisoner's Handbook

[X]Faye Dunaway:
Chinatown, The Gene Generation

[X]Michael Nyqvist:
Arn: The Knight Templar, Downloading Nancy

[X]Jesse Eisenberg:
Adventureland, The Village

[X]Justin Bartha:
National Treasure, The Hangover

[X]Danny A. Abeckaser:
You Don't Mess with the Zohan, The Education of Charlie Banks

[X]Ari Graynor:
Whip It, Mystic River

[X]Jason Fuchs:
Winter Solstice, The Hebrew Hammer

[X]DJ Qualls:
Hustle & Flow, I'm Reed Fish

[X]Nikki Reed:
Twilight, American Gun

[X]William Sadler:
The Shawshank Redemption, Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight

[X]Brendan Gleeson:
Green Zone, The Butcher Boy

[X]Sarah Jessica Parker:
The Family Stone, Mars Attacks!

[X]Kristin Davis:
Deck the Halls, Couples, Retreat!

[X]Cynthia Nixon:
Igby Goes Down, I Am the Cheese

[X]Kim Cattrall:
Split Second, Mannequin

[X]Andre Dussollier:
Tell No One, Dark Portals

[X]Sabine Azema:
Not on the Lips, Sunday in the Country

[X]Emmanuelle Devos:
Coco Before Chanel, The Beat That My Heart Skipped

[X]Mathieu Amalric:
La Moustache, Quantum of Solace

[X]Jennifer Lawrence:
The Burning Plain, Garden Party

[X]John Hawkes:
Small Town Saturday Night, Deadwood

[X]Dale Dickey:
The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love, Princess Protection Program

[X]Garret Dillahunt:
The Last House on the Left, No Country for Old Men

[X]Barry Levinson:
Man of the Year, Envy

[X]Al Pacino:
Scent of a Woman, 88 Minutes

[X]Brenda Vaccaro:
The Mirror Has Two Faces, Capricorn One

[X]Susan Sarandon:
Stepmom, Solitary Man

[X]John Goodman:
In the Electric Mist, Storytelling