Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Week of September 27

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Friday, September 30th

Maybe it's got something to do with director Michael Bay's outsized personality, but his larger-than-life Transformers: Dark of the Moon won't be released on Tuesday with the other movies... the third Transformers movie will arrive this Friday, September 30th.

Once again, Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) reunites with the Autobots to save the Earth from the Decepticons, battling over the evidence of a previous Transformer encounter that inspired the Apollo 11 moon landing... which results in massive amounts of gunfire, chases, and giant robots crashing together. On DVD and Blu-Ray.
Joanna (Keira Knightley) and Michael (Sam Worthington) are a married couple in the middle of a fight in Last Night, triggered by Michael's sexy co-worker Laura (Eva Mendes). Worse, Michael and Joanna leave for an overnight business trip the day after the fight; while they're away, Joanna runs into an old flame (Guillaume Canet). As they spend a night apart from one another, each with their own temptations, they have to face what they really want, and who they really are. On DVD and Blu-Ray.


Released by the Criterion Collection, Olivier Assayas' three-part miniseries Carlos is the story of the notorious terrorist called The Jackal. From his raid on OPEC in 1975 to his eventual capture in 1994, Ilich Ramirez Sanchez (Edgar Ramirez) was known to the world as "Carlos the Jackal," an enormous personality who publicly fought for the Liberation of Palestine-- Carlos covers the infamous actions that made him a target around the world, and the insatiable personal life that drove him. With Alexander Scheer. On DVD and Blu-Ray.


Victor (Jay Baruchel) moves into an apartment in Montreal while the city is being terrorized by a serial killer in Good Neighbors. He's immediately infatuated with one neighbor, Louise (Emily Hampshire), but Victor's fidgety, neurotic demeanor makes him an easy target for another neighbor, sardonic, aloof, wheelchair-bound Spencer (Scott Speedman). The brittle relationship between three neighbors are compounded by the tension in the city, and they each use the fear to their own advantage, but none of them really understand the consequences of what they're beginning to do. On DVD and Blu-Ray.


Freddy "Dead Cert" Frankham (Craig Fairbrass) has left his gangster life behind, and runs a legitimate nightclub with his friends (Perry Benson, Danny Dyer, and Jason Flemyng) in Dead Cert. When a Romanian businessman (Billy Murray) offers to buy the club, Freddy refuses, but the Romanians are more persuasive than he could imagine... they're vampires. Now Freddy and his gang have a war on their hands-- a war with the undead.


Don Lee (Nick Cheung) needs an informant if he's going to bring down a kingpin called The Barbarian (Lu Yi) in The Stool Pigeon. Don's suffering a crisis of conscience because of the fate of his last informant, but he still brings in Ghost (Nicholas Tse), a driver fresh out of prison, to infiltrate The Barbarian's gang. Ghost doesn't want to inform and Don doesn't want another informant to get hurt, but they're both placed in high pressure situations with very few options, and a slim chance of making it out in tact.


When guerillas take nearly all the men from a remote Latin American village, Eva Longoria reshapes the village as an all-woman utopia in Without Men. Though their priest (Oscar Nunez) is still with them, the society is predominantly women, and run by women, until a journalist (Christian Slater) arrives to investigate, and ruins the delicate balance of the town.


Officer Hollis Lucetti (Terrence Howard) is called out of personal crisis to talk down a suicidal jumper in The Ledge. On the ledge, Gavin (Charlie Hunnam) doesn't want to jump, but he begins to tell Hollis the story of how he got there, about the timid wife (Liv Tyler) and her stern, Evangelical husband (Patrick Wilson), and the battle of wills that escalated to a life-and-death face off with a rapidly approaching deadline.


Iris (Rose Byrne) is struggling to advance in Australia's jazz-age underworld in The Boxer and the Bombshell, playing the angles in a dangerous love triangle between her gangster, con man lover (Hugo Weaving) and a new boxer in their lives. As the gangster, boxer, and femme fatale each vie for position at the top of the triangle, but their secrets and moral compromises make their competition increasingly dangerous.


The new documentaries this week are the meditation on astronomy and human rights Nostalgia for the Light, a Chilean film that centers on the Atcama Desert, where the heat and dry climate make it the home of astronomers and the fallout from Pinochet's regime occur under the same clear skies.
Also new is The Godfather of Gore, a documentary about horror film provocateur Herschell Gordon Lewis, whose subversive exploitation films were the first "gore" movies, staples of the drive-in circuit of the 1960s, and a continuing influence on horror movies through the decades.


Narrated by Helena Bonham Carter, the animated The Gruffalo is the story of a mouse (James Corden) who has to outwit a variety of predators as he makes his way to a faraway hazelnut tree, making up a creature called a "gruffalo" to threaten the animals who would eat him... until he meets a real gruffalo, and has to outwit him, too.
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New this week in our TV New Releases:
How I Met Your Mother
Season 6
Ted, Robin, Lily, Marshall, and Barney “suit up” for another season of fun and frolic in NYC. Adventure Time
My Two Favorite People
Come on, grab your friends, we'll go to very distant lands. Jake the Dog and Finn the Human-- the fun will never end.
Call Me Fitz
Season 1
Unscrupulous car salesman Fitz is haunted by Larry-- a wholesome salesman who claims to be Fitz's conscience. Hung
Season 2
A former high school sports legend and middle-aged high school basketball coach makes ends meet as a gigolo.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Week of September 20

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Bridesmaids

When Lillian (Maya Rudolph) gets engaged, she asks Annie (Kristen Wiig) to be her maid of honor in Bridesmaids. Annie is introduced to Lillian's new friends and fellow bridesmaids, meeting beleaguered housewife Rita (Wendi McLendon-Covey), uninhibited Megan (Melissa McCarthy) and young newlywed Becca (Ellie Kemper), but her problem is Helen (Rose Byrne)-- Helen is impossibly perfect, rich, and beautiful, upstaging Annie at every turn, while Annie's life continues to fall apart. As Helen seems determined to take Annie's place as Lillian's best friend, Annie struggles to keep up while her world unravels in a series of comic misadventures. With Jon Hamm and Chris O'Dowd. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Documentaries and Subtitles

Following a traveling circus through rural Mexico, Circo documents a family on the road, trying to keep the century-old circus alive. While Tino, the ringmaster, tries to keep the circus' traditions in tact, like his father before him, his wife struggles with their nomadic lifestyle and dreams of a more traditional life for their children.

Star Wars Blu Ray

All six Star Wars movies have arrived in Blu Ray, bringing everything from A New Hope to Revenge of the Sith to high definition, with new commentary tracks and enhancements to the films from George Lucas, and new documentaries, archives, and interviews from each of the movies.

Agnes Varda's 1976 documentary Daguerreotypes is New to Reckless this week, capturing on film the rue Daguerre where she lived for decades. Varda explores the shopkeepers and personalities in the neighborhood, providing a unique look into a specific time and place in Paris.

Monster Movies

The Colonel (Bruce Boxleitner) in charge of America's extraterrestrial secrets is ordered to play host to reporters in 51, but he's only going to show Jason London and the other reporters a sanitized version of Area 51 and Hangar 18. Regardless of the Colonel's plans, the alien secrets are about to be discovered when the creatures break free and start killing everyone in the compound. With Rachel Miner.

A group of friends get together to have a "boy's weekend" in a remote town in the British Doghouse, to help raise Vince's (Stephen Graham) spirits after a painful divorce... but the all of the town's women have been turned into cannibalistic zombies. Now cocky womanizer Neil (Danny Dryer), restless husband Mikey (Noel Clarke), comics obsessed Matt (Lee Ingleby), self-help obsessed Patrick (Keith-Lee Castle), sensitive homosexual Graham (Emil Marwa), and goofball Banksy (Neil Maskell) have to help Vince survive their men's retreat, surrounded by women who threaten their lives and worse... their egos.

Keith (Chris Makepeace) and A.J. (Robert Rusler) are having a tough night in 1986's Vamp, New to Reckless this week-- the frat they're pledging sends him into into town to hire a stripper, so they find a misfit (Gedde Watanabe) with a car and head out to prove themselves. Downtown is hard on frat boys, though: they're assaulted by townies (Billy Drago) and, when they finally get to the strip club, it's run by a vampire queen (Grace Jones). Suddenly, pledging to the fraternity is the least of their troubles.

Setup

When a robbery goes wrong, Sonny (Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson) is left for dead in Setup. His second chance at life comes with the realization that his longtime friend and partner Vincent (Ryan Phillippe) set him up, and Sonny can't start his new life until he settles the score with Vincent, so he makes a deal with the most dangerous gangster (Bruce Willis) in town to get the job done. With Jenna Dewan-Tatum. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Puppies

The newest movie in the Air Buddies series is Spooky Buddies, where the talking puppies are aided by a friendly ghost to save the world from Warwick the Warlock..

New this week in our TV New Releases:
Modern Family
Season 2
Emmy winning show follows three different families and the comic trials they face in their everyday life. Castle
Season 3
“Naked Heat” is in the book stores and Castle is MIA. Beckett, Ryan and Esposito find Castle in a compromising position.
Hawaii Five-0
Season 1
The exploits of a special task force investigating crimes on the Hawaiian islands. Raising Hope
Season 1
A single father raises his baby girl, conceived in a one-night stand with a criminal.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Season 6
Mac pulls out the big guns to protect the sanctity of marriage and the gang reaps the rewards. Body of Proof
Season 1
A medical examiner balances solving crimes with her personal life.
Mike & Molly
Season 1
A police officer and a school teacher meet at overeater's anonymous and become an unlikely couple. The Kennedys
Complete Miniseries
History Channel miniseries about the triumphs and tragedies of the Kennedy family.
The Mentalist
Season 3
Jane and Lisbon continue to work on cases and chase Red John. Happy Endings
Season 1
A group of Chicago friends cope with a break-up in their midst.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Week of September 13

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Gods and Mortals

Kenneth Branagh's Thor is the newest superhero movie from Marvel, where Thor's (Chris Hemsworth) arrogance and recklessness forces Odin (Anthony Hopkins), his father, to banish him from Asgard. As a scientist (Natalie Portman) finds Thor stranded in New Mexico without his powers, Asgard is brought to the brink of war by Thor's brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston). To reclaim the ability to save both Asgard and the Earth, Thor first has to prove himself worthy of the power he once took for granted. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Journeys

The French-Canadian Incendies was nominated for this year's Best Foreign Language Film, where twins Jeanne and Simon are grieving the loss of their mother, Nawal (Lubna Azabal). Nawal has left two letters for her children to deliver: one for the father they never knew, the other for a brother they never knew they had. Travelling to the middle east to deliver the letters, they learn about the tumultous religious turmoil in their mother's past, and how the strife they're born into may not be a valid reason for hate. On DVD and Blu-Ray

Kelly Reichardt's Meek's Cutoff accompanies Oregon Trail settlers over the Cascade Mountains in 1845. A small group of the Tetherows (including Michelle Williams), the Gatelys (Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan), and the Whites (including Shirley Henderson) head west through the arid and desolate landscape, fearing harsh weather and diminishing supplies. The length and hardship of the journey leads the wagon train to question the abilities of their guide, Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood), and consider drastic actions to ensure their survival.

Song and Dance

The story of Tasi, celebrated in the local ballroom dancing scene, and her sister Toni, a quiet wallflower who serves as her sister's practice partner, in Leading Ladies. The sisters live under the rule of their larger-than-live mother (Melanie LaPatin), herself a former ballroom dancing champion, who has their family and stage life well planned... except that Tasi and Toni both make their own choices, which could confound her expectations.

Willie's mother sends him to boarding school in 1969 Australia in Brand New Day. Studying to be a priest under the strict Father Benedictus (Geoffrey Rush), Willie's less interested in embracing a life of celibacy than returning home and wooing his girl Rosie. When Willie runs away and heads home, chased by Benedictus all the way, his story becomes a musical (complete with dance numbers), a wild farce, and a road movie, until Willie and everyone in his wake can make it home for a big finish.

School Age

While T.J. (Devin Brochu) is having trouble dealing with the death of his mother in Hesher, his father (Rainn Wilson) is too depressed to do anything at all, including help his son. They're both lost, and T.J. is miserable, grieving, and picked on at school, when Hesher (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) drops into their lives-- Hesher is profane, combative, disrespectful, and invariably scored by 80's Metallica, and though he's never pleasant, neither T.J. nor his dad are functional enough to make him leave. If Hesher's never actually helpful or even nice, he could still be disruptive enough to shake them out of their rut. With Natalie Portman. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Peck (Keir Gilchrist) is beginning high school in Just Peck, but even though he's got a good idea what he wants, his parents (including Adam Arkin) and his principal (Camryn Manheim) keep making his decisions for him. When he befriends the seemingly-perfect Emily (Brie Larson), she inspires a rebellious streak in Peck that sneaks out in unexpected ways and could have concequences no one anticipates.

Live

A taping of her one-woman show, Wishful Drinking is Carrie Fisher's stage show. Fisher tells the stories surrounding her extended show business family, her own fame, and the scandals and troubles that link them, all with a sense of humor and wry wit.

After Conan O'Brien's short run as the host of the Tonight Show, he used the six months he wasn't allowed on television to go on tour. His journey from the beginning of his live show to its conclusions is documented in Conan O'Brien Can't Stop, an all-access, behind-the-scenes look at Conan O'Brien, whose sense of humor can be more viscious and combative when he's off stage and dealing with the stresses of putting on a show.



35 & Ticking is the story of four friends: Zenobia (Nicole Ari Parker), a professional woman looking for Mr. Right, Phil (Keith Robinson), unhappily married to his party-girl wife, Victoria (Tamala Jones) who wants a baby with her young and unsure husband, and shy and unemployed Cleavon (Kevin Hart), trying to make an impression on his dream girl (Meagan Good). The friends navigate life in their late 30s as they each try to find their own take on happiness in adulthood.

With everyone fearing the end of the world, Philip (Joseph Cross) is embraced as a new messiah in Son of Morning. Made famous by an ambitious reporter (Heather Graham), Philip is put up in a luxury apartment with only his butler (Edward Herrmann) as council... but though he's famous for everyone's assumption, he doesn't have a message or any kind of godly wisdom. With Danny Glover.

A series of short stories, American Breakdown features Josh Hartnett driving LA at night looking for the perfect car to crash, Steve Carell looking to take revenge for what happened to him as a child, James Gandolfini as a lesson-teaching spirit, Scott Caan and Paul Walker thrown together by a car accident, Ioan Gruffudd as a man offering perspective to a suicide attempt survivor, and Paris Hilton finding an unorthodox way to nurse a broken heart.

The newest Barbie DVD is Barbie Princess Charm School, where Barbie attends a school for princesses-in-training, but will have to stand up to the people who want to make sure she never reaches the throne.


New this week in our TV New Releases:
Glee
Season 2
Part 2
The second half of season two is finally available for all the Gleeks who have been waiting patiently. Spartacus
Gods of the Arena
Before Spartacus struck down his first opponent, other gladiators passed the gates and onto the sands.
Rescue Me
Season 6
Tommy is shaken after he has a terrifying vision of the afterlife and the department is dealing with budget cuts. Grey's Anatomy
Season 7
Seattle Grace’s staff deals with the physical and emotional trauma after the deadly rampage.
Camelot
Season 1
A young Arthur, under the care of Merlin, begins to carve his legacy and legend in the court of Camelot. The Big Bang Theory
Season 4
Knock, knock, knock, Penny? Knock, knock, knock, Penny? Knock, knock, knock, Penny?
Sanctuary
Season 3
The sanctuary for “abnormals” continues to deal with the Cabal and the remote vampire enclave. Supernatural
Season 6
Sam and Dean resurface a year late. Dean is with Lisa and her son. This time Sam comes to recruit Dean.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Week of September 6

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Better than Normal

Set in the 1960's, before he became Professor X, Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) is using his pro-mutant patter to pick up pretty undergrads in Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class. When a CIA agent (Rose Byrne) discovers diamond-skinned women and teleporters plotting against the government with Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), she finds Xavier, an expert on mutants, and in tracking Shaw, they find Erik Lensherr (Michael Fassbender), a powerful mutant who can control magnetic fields. Now Xavier and Lensherr have to assemble a team of mutants to become the first X-Men, including Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Beast (Nicholas Hoult), and Banshee (Caleb Landry Jones)-- they have to stop Shaw and his mutants from tipping the Cuban Missile Crisis into a full-scale nuclear war. With Jason Flemying, Zoe Kravitz, and January Jones. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

16-year-old Hanna (Saorise Ronan) was raised in the forest in isolation by her father (Eric Bana) in Joe Wright's Hanna.  She's never met another person or lived with running water or electricity, but she's trained her whole life to fight and shoot, hunt and evade, waiting for the day she's ready to meet Marissa Wiegler (Cate Blanchett), the agent that will come for her.  When that challenge finally comes, Hanna is set loose in an unfamiliar world where her ability to be a soldier and survivor come naturally, but her ability to be a normal girl is more questionable. On DVD and Blu-Ray.


Nick (Will Ferrel) is having a bad day in Everything Must Go-- on his drive home after being fired from his high ranking corporate job, he finds all of his possessions in the yard, his locks changed, and house empty.  Nick's wife won't answer the phone, so he sits in the furniture on the lawn and begins to drink.  Nick has very few friends, going against the advice of his AA sponsor (Michael Pena), but his new life on the front lawn acquaints him with a neighborhood boy who helps with Nick's impromptu yard sale and the neighbor (Rebecca Hall) who has more in common with Nick's predicament than she could guess. On DVD and Blu-Ray

Allison (Alexandra Daddario) has moved to a rural town to live with her uncle (Michael Biehn) in Bereavement, but there are hidden dangers lurking behind the quiet country idyll.  When she sees strange occurrences at an abandoned slaughterhouse, her investigation puts her in the path of a deranged killer (Brett Rickaby) and the small boy forced to watch his horrific work.

The documentary If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front tells the story of the group labeled "the #1 domestic terrorist threat" in the wake of 9/11. The film explores the idea of "terrorist" as a loaded term, specifically during the war on terror, as applied to a group that never targets people, but also weighs the group's civil disobedience and destruction of symbols of environmental abuse against truly non-violent forms of protest.

The third entry in the Cinderella Story series is A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song, where Katie (Lucy Hale) lives a hard life under the thumb of her vain and cruel stepmother (Missi Pyle).  Katie dreams of being a pop star and forms an instant connection with the boy (Freddie Storma) who could make that happen for her, but she's forced to pretend she has no talent to make her stepsister (Megan Park) seem like the singer in the family.  Can Katie show her prince charming that hers is the voice he's looking for?

Adrien Brody wakes up in a crashed car in Wrecked, pinned in the wreck with a broken leg, and little hope for rescue. He's alone in the forest, trapped in the car, and he doesn't remember much about the accident, how he got there, or who he is... he does have to deal with the dead man in the back seat, and basic survival-- getting out of the car, and being mobile enough to get to some kind of civilization-- but the details of how he ended up in this position might complicate matters. With Caroline Dhavernas and Ryan Robbins.

Filmed as a stage play, The Ideal Husband stars Shanti Lowry as the head of a beauty shop, going through the day's business with a host of colorful characters both in the shop's staff and among the customers. She's got a good life, with a successful husband (Darrin Dewitt Henson) recovering from an injury and heading back into professional football, and a baby on the way... until some loose talk under the hair dryer changes her perspective on love, marriage, and her own version of happiness.


New this week in our TV New Releases:
Community
Season 2
Greendale’s favorite study group is at it again, with all the tensions and competition in tact. Fringe
Season 3
Olivia is shockingly left “over there” and Peter and Walter move ahead with the alternate Olivia.
Parks & Recreation
Season 3
Amy Poehler continues to lead her motley crew of misfits as they pursue sundry projects to make their city a better place. Criminal Minds
Season 6
The Prince of Darkness is still on the rampage in California, and the BAU tries to save Det. Spicer’s daughter.
The Office
Season 7
The Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin prepares for the departure of Michael Scott.. The Good Wife
Season 2
Alice stays with Peter and she gets appointed as counsel in a murder case.