Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Week of January 25

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Returning to their strengths

Retired super-spy Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) is living a quiet life in Red, doing little besides flirting on the phone with Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker), a customer service agent who handles his pension checks. When he kills the team of assassins who disrupt his retirement, Frank knows his phone is tapped, everyone in his life is now a target, and he has to find and save Sarah. With a driven CIA agent (Karl Urban) tracking him every step of the way, Frank seeks the help of old colleagues John Malkovich, Morgan Freeman, and Helen Mirren... all classified RED (Retired: Extremely Dangerous) and capable of showing their young opponents the value of experience. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Taking on an unironic martial arts project after his turn as Black Dynamite, Michael Jai White is Isaiah Bone in Blood and Bone. Fresh out of jail, Bone joins a street fight promoter (Dante Basco) and attracts the attention of a powerful mob boss (Eamonn Walker) and the international arms dealer (Julian Sands) that controls the street fights... but at home, Bone doesn't behave like a mercenary fighter, and quietly pursues his own agenda. With Nona Gaye.

True Stories

Though she doesn't know anything about horse racing, Penny Chenery (Dianne Lane) takes over her ailing father's stables in Disney's Secretariat. Based on the events surrounding the 1973 Triple Crown, the film follows Penny as she carves her own path through the male-dominated world of racing, and with the help of a veteran horse trainer (John Malkovich) and groomer (Nelsan Ellis) she fights for her family's legacy... even though everyone around her wants her to be a more normal housewife and mother, and sell the stables. On DVD and Blu Ray.

The story of a young, pre-Beatles John Lennon (Aaron Johnson), Nowhere Boy begins with Lennon as a troublemaker living with his aunt (Kristin Scott Thomas). He reunites with his estranged mother (Anne-Marie Duff) who introduced John to his first instrument, begins his first band, meets Paul (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) and George, and takes the first steps toward becoming a legendary figure in rock & roll.

Solving Murders

The third and final film in the series, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest rejoins Lisbeth (Noomi Rapace) in intensive care and framed for murder. Once again, Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) is working to clear her name, but with a massive conspiracy working to keep Lisbeth silent, she must do whatever it takes to bring down the corrupt officials who are trying to destroy her. On DVD and Blu Ray.

In the series-concluding Saw VII, the survivors of Jigsaw's (Tobin Bell) traps and puzzles face off against one another to take the place of their mentor. Returning from Saw III through VI, Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) abducts and tests a self-hep guru (Sean Patrick Flanery) and punishes him for lying about being a Jigsaw survivor, and he sends video of the tests to an internal affairs officer (Chad Donella). As the game is played and the police follow the video clues, Hoffman tries to assert himself as the next Jigsaw, but there are other Jigsaw disciples who would challenge him. With Cary Elwes.

Eric's Corner

Red Hill immediately reminded me of John Carpenter in the good ole' days. The movie might not aim for more than a quality B-movie, but it offers the vengeance against a guilty town from The Fog, the John Ford style bad-assery of Assault on Precinct 13, and the silent and unstoppable monster from Halloween. It's not going to win the Best Foreign Film Oscar this year, but Red Hill is a great looking picture that knows its genre-movie heritage.
Transferred to the sleepy Australian town of Red Hill, Constable Shane Cooper's (Ryan Kwanten) first day on the job goes wrong when a convicted murderer (Tom E. Lewis) escapes from prison and rides into Red Hill. The police captain (Steve Bisley) assembles a posse of locals to handle the situation, but when a nearly unstoppable killing machine comes to town, Cooper has to find out why the killer is killing, and why the locals want to shoot first and ask questions later.

Gerard Depardieu is the title character in Claude Chabrol's Inspector Bellamy. The celebrity detective Bellamy goes on vacation, but his career follows him and there is a murder to be solved. With shadowy figures haunting his life and his self-destructive brother (Clovis Cornillac) imposing on his vacation home, Inspector Bellamy must solve his case, but the film itself is a layered character piece interested in the compulsive mystery-solver that is Bellamy.

Nature vs. Nurture

The surreal Greek drama Dogtooth tells the story of a couple that raised their family isolated from the outside world. Their children, two girls and a boy, are raised with their own take on language ("zombie" means "a small yellow flower") and a warning that disobedience will have them exiled into the strange and frightening world beyond their walls. As the children grow up and become sexually aware, they begin to develop beyond their parents' control, but in unpredictable ways.

Documentaries

The story of New York attorney general and later governor of the state Eliot Spitzer, Alex Gibney's Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer is both the story of Spitzer's career and his history as a crusader against white collar crime and impropriety on Wall Street. Recounting his time as an untouchable white knight and the scandals and indiscretions that brought him down, the film features interviews with the figures involved with Spitzer's rise and fall.

The minimalist Sweetgrass follows modern cowboys as they herd their sheep into mountains for their summer pasture. Presented without narration or music, the film presents the simple contrast of man and nature, the entire journey of a process that most people never see.

Funny

Ari Gold is Power in The Adventures of Power, the tale of a frustrated air drummer. Living with his aunt (Jane Lynch), not respected by his father (Michael McKean), he travels to New Jersey to train in the art of air drumming and win in the local competition. Power takes his air drumming seriously, but he's threatened by a "real" drummer (Adrian Grenier), a country music millionaire who wants to compete just to prove air drumming is moronic. With Shoshannah Stern and Chiu Chi Ling.

Mike Epps is the bear Boog in Open Season 3, planning his annual Guys' Trip, but all of his male friends have other plans. Disappointed, Boog sees a circus and heads off to find new friends, but soon finds himself trapped in a strange new world... but it's not all bad: there's a talented performing lady grizzly bear that's unlike anyone he's ever met.

Our two new stand up comedy DVDs this week are Hilarious, by Louis C.K, and Douchebags and Donuts, hosted by Dennis Leary and featuring performances by Lenny Clarke, Whitney Cummings, and Adam Ferrara.


New this week in Reckless Video's TV New Releases are part 1 of the second season of the hit musical drama Glee, as well as season 8 of the British secret agent show MI-5. We also have the first seasons of the animated Batman: The Brave & the Bold and Ricky Gervais's animated Ricky Gervais Show.

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