Week of January 4

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The Idiot Contest

Dinner for Schmucks
Now & Then

Career driven Tim (Paul Rudd) is invited to a special dinner by his boss (Bruce Greenwood) in Dinner for Schmucks -- all of the high class businessmen bring an idiot to dinner, and the person who brings the most entertaining fool "wins." Tim doesn't want to turn down his boss' invite, and, even though he's not sure about the game, he meets the perfect idiot in Barry (Steve Carell), an embarrassingly clueless and annoying IRS employee. Once invited, Barry becomes a part of Tim's world, and quickly begins to unravel Tim's life, compromising his job and alienating his girlfriend (Stephanie Szostak), but if he can survive Barry until they get to the dinner party, Tim's sure he has a winner... but does he want to win? On DVD and Blu Ray.

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Revenge

Betrayed and left for dead, super-agent Machete (Danny Trejo) is hired into a complicated plot in Robert Rodriguez's Machete, based on his trailer in the Grindhouse double feature. When a Texas businessman (Jeff Fahey) hires him to kill a corrupt senator (Robert De Niro), Machete begins to investigate the assassination plot and finds himself at the center of a conspiracy of politics, immigration, and drugs. Operating on both sides of the law, with a revolutionary (Michelle Rodriguez) on one side and an Immigrations Officer (Jessica Alba) on the other, Machete has to follow a blood soaked path to the drug kingpin (Steven Seagal) that destroyed his life so many years ago. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Restaurant head chef and cooking show host Peter (James LeGros) is dismissed from both his jobs after a scathing online review in Bitter Feast. Peter kidnaps J.T. Franks (Joshua Leonard), the blogger who ruined his life, and conducts a series of "tests" meant to measure Franks' qualifications as a food critic. With Larry Fessenden.

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Scary Kids

Social worker Emily (Renee Zellweger) rescues 10-year-old Lillith (Jodelle Ferland) from an abusive family in Case 39. Lillith's parents are institutionalized for attempting to murder her, so she stays with Emily until a foster home can be found. With the new child in her life, strange occurrences start to plague Emily, and as she becomes more and more terrified, Emily begins to wonder if Lillith's parents weren't crazy when they said the girl was evil. With Ian McShane and Bradley Cooper. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Iris Bahr is making a documentary about exorcists in The Last Exorcism, and her subject is Reverend Marcus (Patrick Fabian), who had staged exorcisms until he had a crisis of faith and conscience. Marcus and the documentary crew travel to a farm to perform an "exorcism" on a sixteen-year-old girl to expose both the insincerity of exorcists and the pageantry that help the ignorant to overcome their delusions... but after years of fake exorcisms, Reverend Marcus may have finally come up against something dangerously real. With Tony Bentley. On DVD and Blu Ray.

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Actual Events

Ariel Schulman began making a documentary about his brother Nev's long distance relationship in the critically acclaimed Catfish. As Nev develops a relationship with a girl named Megan over Facebook, Ariel documents Nev's interactions with Megan and her family. Megan writes songs for Nev and her sister Abby sends him accomplished paintings, and the brothers start to investigate the talented family they've been involved with... but aren't prepared for what they'll find.

James Franco is beat poet luminary Alan Ginsberg in Howl, which splinters into the stories of the poet's early life and loves, the obscenity trial surrounding the poem "Howl," and animated interpretations of Ginsberg's poems. Jon Hamm, David Strathairn, and Jeff Daniels round out the cast of a film that is part biopic, part courtroom drama, and part poetry experiment.

A family-man Sergeant, a German-American national, a petty thief enlisted in order to avoid jail time, and wholesome farm hand with a girl back home are WWII comrades in Everyman's War. Focusing on Sgt Don Smith and the 94th Infantry Division, the film tells the story of an outnumbered unit with no communications who helped shape the outcome of The Battle of the Bulge.

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Joel Schumacher's drug and addiction drama Twelve stars Chase Crawford as White Mike, a down-on-his-luck young drug dealer serving upper-class New York teenagers. When Mike makes a connection between his supplier (Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson) and a wealthy (but unpopular) society boy (Rory Culkin) at a party, the violence, addiction, and heartbreak that follow could ruin the promising futures of kids who seem to have everything. With Emma Roberts.

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New this week in Reckless Video's TV New Releases are the 4th season of the Mormon drama Big Love, and the first series of Doctor Who writer Stephen Moffet's BBC detective series Sherlock.