Week of February 22

Website is best viewed at RecklessVideo.com. Pop-up credits links are inactive on Blogger.

Comedy: Capes & Cars

Two children from alien worlds are sent, Superman-like, to Earth in Dreamworks' Megamind. One lands in a mansion and is raised to be Metro Man (Brad Pitt), the famous and super-powered protector of Metro City; the other lands in a prison, and is raised by the "criminally gifted" to be the supervillain Megamind (Will Ferrell). He and his minion (David Cross) repeatedly battle Metro Man... and lose... though when Megamind falls for his hostage (Tina Fey), he begins to suspect he's not that bad. But what would he do without Metro Man? What else can a supervillain do but battle superheroes? With Jonah Hill. On DVD and Blu Ray.

The Hangover director Todd Phillips' newest road movie is Due Date, where high strung professional Peter (Robert Downey Jr) and free spirited manchild Ethan (Zach Galifianakis) get thrown off their plane and are forced to drive to California together. While Ethan is leisurely trying to find the perfect spot for his father's ashes on his way to Hollywood, Peter is trying to get to his pregnant wife (Michelle Monaghan) before she delivers their baby... but traveling with Ethan can make even the simplest plan into a wild, comic farce. On DVD and Blu Ray.

---

Drama: Love & Death

After spending decades as a hermit isolated in the woods, Felix Bush (Robert Duvall) hitches his mule to a cart and rolls into his mid-30's country town and requests a "living funeral" in Get Low. The local funeral director (Bill Murray) and his employee (Lucas Black) are willing to take Felix on as a client, the old hermit makes a strange carnival of the event, confounding the townsfolk who believe all the rumors about him: everything from Felix Bush being murderer to his being in league with the devil... but he simply wants to tell his story, and finally be heard. With Sissy Spacek and Bill Cobbs. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Kristin Scott Thomas lives a privileged life in the French Leaving, a mother of two married to a demanding doctor (Yvan Attal), but risks her lifestyle when she begins a compulsive and dangerous affair with an ex-con laborer (Sergi Lopez). If she chooses to leave and follow her freedom and passion, her world could fall apart, but would the reward be worth the unknown cost she'd bring upon herself in the future?

---

Foreign Action: Heroes & Robbers

The French Mesrine: The Killer Instinct is the first half of the story of Jacques Mesrine (Vincent Cassel), the notorious bank robber, kidnapper, and burglar often considered the French equivalent of John Dillinger. The first film chronicles Mesrine's introduction to crime, his tutelage under an established crime boss (Gerard Depardieu), and the formative gunfights, chases, and escapes that would lead him to being Public Enemy No. 1. With Ludivine Sagnier and Cecile De France. On DVD and Blu Ray.

A Russian superhero story, Black Lightning has a villainous scientist looking for the power source that will give him access to massive wealth beneath Moscow... even if mining it will destroy the city and everyone in it. Unbeknownst to the scientist, that power source is hidden inside the car of one of his students, a moral young man who uses the super-powered flying car to fight against crime and injustice. With both men desperate to control the power source, one for good and one for evil, they are on a collision course that will decide the future of Moscow.

---

Horror: Killers & Eagles

Though it's dangerous for her to be out after dark with "The Nighthawk" serial killer on the loose, Sara Foster takes a night job cataloging patient files in a recently closed hospital in Psych 9. Her time in the empty and ominous building his made bearable by a doctor (Cary Elwes) helping the place in closing and the police detective (Michael Biehn) who would protect her, but she begins to suspect the hospital is tied to the Nighthawk killings. Her suspicions could prove she's in real danger, or that she's beginning to succumb to paranoia and dementia.

Two successful 20-somethings meet and fall in love in Birdemic: Shock & Terror, only to wake up to a horrific attack by screeching, violent eagles bent on destroying humanity. The eco-thriller posits killer eagles, birds that have gained the ability to blow up buildings and hover in place for long periods of time, have been forced into their violent ways by mankind's pollution of the earth. Can these people change their ways, or will they succumb to violent bird death?

---

"In the beginning, you can't have a better
press agent than a censor, especially
in the 50s or 60s" --John Waters

The documentary William S. Burroughs: A Man Within is a look back at the life of controversial writer William S. Burroughs, both at his literary work and his notoriety as an outspoken gay figure and public junkie through decades of repression and willful ignorance. Compiled from footage of Burroughs through the years along with interviews with the artists, musicians, writers, and lovers that new him through the arc of his life, A Man Within looks into many aspects of his legendary life.

---

The DVD release of the 25th anniversary of Les Miserables captures the high budget stage performance of the show in London, featuring Nick Jonas, Norm Lewis, Matt Lucas, and Jenny Galloway.

---

New this week in Reckless Video's TV New Releases are the 2nd season of the medical drama Nurse Jackie with Edie Falco, and the 6th season of Mary-Louise Parker as the drug-dealing housewife in Weeds.

Reckless also has two new anime series: Samurai 7, a serialized science fiction adaptation of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, and the supernatural boarding school drama/romance Vampire Knight.

Week of February 15

Website is best viewed at RecklessVideo.com. Pop-up credits links are inactive on Blogger.

The edge of your seat

Tony Scott's runaway train thriller Unstoppable puts a 28-year engineer (Denzel Washington) with a rookie conductor (Chris Pine) in an engine in northern Pennsylvania. When another train, unmanned and loaded with toxic material, starts speeding down the tracks, the yardmaster (Rosario Dawson) isn't allowed to derail it because an executive (Kevin Dunn) is worried about railroad company profits. It's up to Washington and Pine to chase down the runaway train before it destroys an entire town, but can the working class duo save the day with their bosses making all the wrong moves? With Lew Temple. On DVD and Blu Ray.

The action romance Kites was the first Bollywood film to reach the American weekend box office top 10, blending Bollywood musical numbers with a Las Vegas setting as J, a dance instructor, and Gina, the daughter of a powerful casino owner, fall in love. When J incurs the wrath of Gina's dangerous and powerful family, they run for the Mexican border, chased by the police and Gina's violent brother. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Set in the summer of 1939, Glorious 39 is the story of the venerable Keyes family in pre-war Britain. The last thing the Keyes family wants is a war that would disrupt their lifestyle, but they find themselves entertaining a pro-Churchill parliament member (David Tennant) who wants the UK to stop appeasing Hitler... who later turns up dead. Anne Keyes (Romola Garai) suspects the death not to be a suicide as reported, but her father (Bill Nighy), and the rest of her family (Julie Christie, Juno Temple, and Eddie Redmayne) think she's being paranoid. As Anne begins to suspect a deeper conspiracy, she can't be sure who she can trust, and starts to fear for her safety. With Charlie Cox and Jeremy Northam.

When white lion cub Letsatsi is abandoned by his tribe in White Lion, he has to survive on his own until he befriends Gisani, a young boy from a tribe that believes white lions are messengers of the gods. Letsatsi grows from a cub to a powerful lion over the course of many adventures, but he has to face his greatest challenge before he takes his place as king of the jungle: a poacher who will stop at nothing to win a white lion as his prize. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Jeff (Kyle Davis) isn't doing much with his life in The Last Lovecraft: Relic of Cuthulu, but he trades in his dead-end job for a quest to save the world when he learns he's the last heir of H.P. Lovecraft. Given an ancient relic and dubbed "The Chosen One," Jeff and his team of nerds have to stop Cuthulu from returning and destroying the world.

---

The grass is always greener...

Woody Allen's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger is a relationship comedy/drama beginning with Alfie (Anthony Hopkins) leaving Helena (Gemma Jones) decades of marriage, and Helena's reliance on a fortune teller (Pauline Collins) who predicts positive events in her future. Sally (Naomi Watts), their daughter, and her husband Roy (Josh Brolin) aren't faring much better: she's got designs on her new boss (Antonio Banderas) and he's infatuated with the beautiful girl across the street (Freida Pinto). As Alfie tries to live life to the fullest with a young call girl (Lucy Punch), everyone weighs the consequences and benefits of staying with who they're with or being with someone new... but neither choice can guarantee them happiness. On DVD and Blu Ray.

---

Awards and Documentaries

David Guggenheim's Waiting for Superman looks at the current state of public schools in America, and the parents who hope to send their kids to charter schools. The film explores the money spent in the school system, the current educational system (from superintendents to teachers), and the impact of teacher's unions on the future of education in America.

When Josh Fox was offered roughly $100,000 for his land to be mined for natural gas, his research into the ramifications of the offer resulted in Gasland, nominated for the Best Documentary Film Oscar this year. On a cross-country trek through 24 states, Josh Fox meets families who have the national gas "hydraulic fracturing" processing on and around their land and records their health issues, contamination of their land and air, and tap water that can be lit on fire.

---

Foreign Language

The eldest son of a Kurdish family takes his place as head of the household in the Iranian A Time for Drunken Horses, which includes him doing whatever work he can find in order to pay for his brother's surgery. Eventually, the only way the family can make money is to smuggle goods over the Iran/Iraq border, feeding their mules liquor to help the animals through winter in the mountains, but the world on the fringes of Iranian society is dangerous... especially for unsupervised children.

A comedy about a Greek restaraunteur in Germany, Soul Food is a slapstick farce about a run-down restaurant. Things begin to turn around when a new cook improves the food and the owner's ex-con brother (Moritz Bleibtreu) starts DJing in the restaurant., attracting a new, hip crowd, but with an eccentric and unpredictable cast of characters, they find themselves in deeper trouble than when they started.

With his young son about to go live with his mother in Rome, Jorge only has a few weeks to teach him about a fisherman's life on the water and his Mayan ancestry in Alamar. As they explore the Chinchorro reef in the Gulf of Mexico, the father and son grow closer, and the boy experiences a world that will always stay with him.

---

New this week in Reckless Video's TV New Releases are the 8th season of reality show Project Runway, as well as the most recent Doctor Who special, where The Doctor has to act as the Ghost of Christmas Past in Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol. We also have the Trailer Park Boys special that takes place right before Countdown to Liquor Day, Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys...

Week of February 8

Website is best viewed at RecklessVideo.com. Pop-up credits links are inactive on Blogger.

Laughing, Crying, Loving

Suffering at a high profile prep school, 16-year-old Craig (Keir Gilchrist) checks himself into a psych ward as a suicide risk in It's Kind of a Funny Story. Craig's prone to stress-induced vomiting and depressed that he can't win the girl of his dreams (Zoe Kravitz), but once he's under the care of Dr. Minerva (Viola Davis), he has to stay in the ward for at least five days and an evaluation before she'll release him. His time in the hospital teaches him about his life, especially in the company of the unpredictable Bobby (Zach Galifianakis) and Noelle (Emma Roberts). On DVD and Blu Ray.

Based on a 70's stage play, Tyler Perry's For Colored Girls tells the stories of nine women, each represented by a different color: Red (Janet Jackson), Green (Loretta Devine), Yellow (Anika Noni Rose), Orange (Thandie Newton), White (Whoopi Goldberg), Grey (Phylicia Rashad), Brown (Kimberly Elise), Purple (Tessa Thompson), and Blue (Kerry Washington). Though they each have their own story, their tales intersect and overlap, exploring the nature of being a woman of color in America.

A group of friends reunite for wedding of Lila (Anna Paquin) and Tom (Josh Duhamel) in The Romantics, but the group has been friends long enough to have plenty of complicated history... including Tom's unresolved romance with Laura (Katie Holmes), the maid of honor. Worse, Laura's the only member of the group to show up single, as the rest of their friends have already paired up, awkwardly leaving her with Lila's little brother (Elijah Wood) as her wedding date. With Dianna Agron, Malin Akerman, and Adam Brody.

Set up on a lousy blind date by their friends, Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel quickly discover they have nothing in common in Life As We Know It... well, nothing except Sophie, their mutual goddaughter. When Sophie's parents are killed in a car accident, they have to come together to take care of the toddler, and even if they're only living together to look after Sophie, their time together as a family could change all of their lives. On DVD and Blu Ray.

When Tamara (Gemma Arterton) returns to the English village where she grew up, she's changed from the ugly duckling the villagers remember into a beautiful and successful writer in Tamara Drewe. Back to repair and sell the house where she grew up, she's the talk of the town when she brings a rock star (Dominic Cooper) home. Her new lifestyle causes no end of trouble with a pair of local, rock star obsessed girls... and her old flame (Luke Evans). With Roger Allam.

Taking 24 hours in the life of a family, the Japanese Still Walking joins the Yokoyama's (Hiroshi Abe and Yui Natsukawa) as they gather their extended family for a commemorative ritual. Taking time with quiet, subtle moments, the story and the nature of the ritual is slowly revealed as the family attends to quiet, simple moments together.

When Marni (Kristen Bell) flies home for her brother's wedding, she's shocked to find the bride is Joanna (Odette Yustman), the girl who mercilessly bullied her in highschool, in You Again. Worse, Joanna's aunt (Sigourney Weaver) pushed Marni's mother (Jamie Lee Curtis) into a pool at their senior prom, so the wedding is full of comic one-upsmanship, unresolved grudges, and underhanded schemes for revenge. Add Betty White as Marni's grandmother and nothing at this wedding will go as planned. On DVD and Blu Ray.

In the sequel to 1992's Pure Country, three angels (Michael McKean, Cheech Marin, and Bronson Pinchot) descend from heaven to bestow a gift on Bobbie Thomas, who becomes a young country singer in Pure Country 2: The Gift. The gift of musical talent comes with rules, and if Bobbie's to hold on to her rising star, she has to stay true and survive the perils of fame. With Travis Fimmel.

---

Controversial director Gaspar Noe's Enter the Void is a voyage behind the eyes and mind of Oscar, an American living in Tokyo with his sister (Paz de la Huerta). Shot from a first person perspective, the film joins him in a hallucinogenic journey through Tokyo's night life, through life, death, and time, and blurs the lines of reality as it explores every aspect of Oscar's being. On DVD and Blu Ray.

The documentary The Last Play at Shea tells the stories of New York's Shea Stadium, the New York Mets who call it home, and Billy Joel, a native Long Islander who plays the stadium's last show. The histories of all three, from the mid 60s to present day, are told with reverence of the now-legendary Shea and its place in New York's legacy.

---

Sequels and Remakes

A prequel to the first film, Paranormal Activity 2 takes place in the home of Dan (Brian Boland) and Kristie (Sprague Grayden), the sister of Katie from the original Paranormal Activity. Beginning with Dan buying a camera as Kristie brings home their newborn son, the couple reacts to their house being vandalized by installing a surveillance system. With the cameras mounted in every room, they capture the slowly increasing phenomena that terrorize the family. On DVD and Blu Ray.

I Spit on Your Grave
Now & Then

A remake of the 1978 rape revenge grindhouse film, the new I Spit on Your Grave sends a city girl to a cabin in the woods to work on her novel, but the local men follow and assault her. Though her assailants assume she's dead, she re-enters their lives determined to make them pay for their crimes in the most vicious ways imaginable. With Andrew Howard. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Tony Jaa returns in Ong Bak 3, set in Thailand in the early 1400s. After being brutally beaten and assumed dead, Jaa must train to rehabilitate himself. When the people who hurt him come back into his life, Jaa must fight them not just for himself, but for the future of his country.

---

Gangsters and Assassins

Bill Nighy is the ultimate hit man in Wild Target: sophisticated, detached, professional, and unbelievably tidy and fastidious. Raised in the family business, he's at the top of his field until he shoots someone about to hit his target, a brassy and wild young woman (Emily Blunt) in front of a naive witness (Rupert Grint). Now he has to convince them he's a suspiciously well-armed private eye and keep them both safe, especially with one of his competitors (Martin Freeman) after all three of them.

Inspired by actual events, corporate fixer Jack Harris (Luke Wilson) finds himself between the FBI and the Russian mob in Middle Men. When two unfocused losers (Giovanni Ribisi and Gabriel Macht) become the first people to put pornography on the internet, they become very rich men... but their mobster business partners and their lawyer (James Caan) call in Jack to sort out their business. Suddenly, straight-arrow Jack, with a wife (Jacinda Barrett) and family, is entrenched in strip clubs and porn stars, and may not have a way out of his new, dangerous life. With Laura Ramsey.

---

New this week to Reckless Video's TV New Releases are two discs of Classic Educational Shorts: The Celluloid Salesman and Safe... Not Sorry. We also have series four of the BBC detective series Pie in the Sky and the children's show Chuggington: Let's Ride the Rails.

Week of February 1

Website is best viewed at RecklessVideo.com. Pop-up credits links are inactive on Blogger.

Dramatic Lives

Raised in an English boarding school, Kathy (Carey Mulligan), Tommy (Andrew Garfield), and Ruth (Keira Knightley) discover they aren't normal children in Never Let Me Go. As they grow up and gradually learn that they are clones, raised to donate organs to people in need, they realize that their lives will be short. Each of them tries to make the most of the time they have, and struggle with their feelings of love, jealousy, and betrayal before they "complete." On DVD and Blu Ray.

Marcus (Anthony Mackie), a former Black Panther, returns to his Philadelphia neighborhood in Night Catches Us. Set in 1976, Marcus goes home to bury his father, but the fallout of his previous life in the black power movement is waiting for him when he arrives. His ex (Kerry Washington) has become a prominent lawyer, a cop (Wendell Pierce) with a score to settle, and a former Panther (Jamie Hector) out for revenge because he thinks Marcus informed to the FBI. As Marcus tries to work through his personal and family ties, he's forced to contend with the neighborhood, the former activists who've become jaded, and the youth trying to live up to their idea of radical revolutionaries.

Doug and Lois Riley (James Gandolfini and Melissa Leo) have drifted apart since the death of their daughter in Welcome to the Rileys, but when Doug meets a young stripper (Kristen Stewart) while attending a conference in New Orleans, he unofficially adopts the girl. At first, the girl sees him as a source of money, and Doug sees her a girl that needs a father figure, but their time together illuminates issues they all need to resolve.
Valerio Mastandrea is an acclaimed writer, coasting through his professional life and his personal relationship with his wife and daughter in Giulia Doesn't Date at Night. When they move to a new home, he stays in their old apartment to work on his new novel... and that's when he meets Giulia (Valeria Golino), a swimming instructor with a troubled past. Their affair walks a dangerous line between selfishness and denial, and could come to a disastrous end.

---

Monstrous

Let Me In
Now & Then

Bullied at school and unhappy at home, young Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee) makes a new friend when the strange and mysterious Abby (Chloe Moretz) moves in next door in Let Me In. Though she's a good friend to Owen, Abby and her guardian's (Richard Jenkins) arrival coincides with a series of murders, and one detective (Elias Koteas) begins to suspect they might not be natural. Remade from 2008's critically acclaimed Let the Right One In. On DVD and Blu Ray.

An American photojournalist (Scoot McNairy) is tasked with escorting his boss' daughter from Mexico to the United States in Monsters, but the area around the border has become a forbidden zone infested with giant, alien creatures. When they miss the ferry, the pair has to journey over land through a danger zone leveled by constant bombings and monster rampages, and their troubles may not end when they cross the wall that guards the American border. On DVD and Blu Ray.

---

Eastern

A Woman, a Gun, and a Noodle Shop
Now & Then

Director Zhang Yimou's interpretation of a Coen Brothers' classic, A Woman, a Gun, and a Noodle Shop transmutes the Coen's neo-noir into a Chinese period piece, where the owner of a noodle shop (Ni Dahong) loses faith in his wife and employees. When an immoral detective (Sun Hong-Lei) enters the fray, the lives of everyone involved become more uncertain, and the story unfolds in the style of Zhang's grim fairytales. On DVD and Blu Ray.

The story of Ryu (Rinko Kikuchi), a beautiful woman who works in a Tokyo fish market, Map of the Sounds of Tokyo follows Ryu from her menial job to her lavish apartment... to her night job as an assassin, as her life is narrated from afar by Min Tanaka. Contracted to kill a Spanish wine-shop owner (Sergi Lopez), Ryu becomes infatuated with her prey and begins to question the work in her contract.

---

True Stories

Based on the true story of Betty Anne Waters, Conviction stars Hilary Swank as the woman who puts herself through law school when her brother (Sam Rockwell) is sentenced to life in jail for murder. When no one is willing to take the case, Betty remakes herself as the only lawyer who believes in her brother, balancing law school with a waitressing job while raising two boys. With Peter Gallagher and Melissa Leo.

Director Amir Bar-Lev's documentary The Tillman Story recounts the story of football star Pat Tillman, who gave up his sports career to join the Army Rangers. The movie tells the story of Tillman's deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan, his death due to friendly fire, and the controversy surrounding his death and its attempted cover-up.

Blood into Wine is a documentary about rockstar Maynard James Keenan's vineyard in northern Arizona. Told partly as a comedy, partly as an exploration of wine culture, the film explores Keenan and vintner Eric Glomski's attempts to make a sustainable winery in a landscape not known for agriculture.

---

Kids' Sequels

Now that Chloe (Odette Yustman) and Papi (George Lopez) are married, their comic misadventures revolve around their litter of puppies in Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2. They have to take their adventures on the road once their human owners get into trouble, and Chloe, Papi, and family have to take their antics out into the world to save their home.

In the made-for-TV sequel Mean Girls 2, Jo, the new girl in school (Meaghan Martin), sees her new outcast friend (Jennifer Stone) bullied by a new generation of Plastics. With a canny sense of mischief, Jo goes about setting the Plastics to rights and putting an end to girl clique bullying.

---

Reckless Video's only addition to the TV New Releases section this week is the first season of the Los Angeles police drama Southland.