Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Week of November 29

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

Comedies

When low-key, easy going, biodynamic farmer Ned (Paul Rudd) gets out of jail after making an embarrassing mistake, he finds he has nothing left to go home to in Our Idiot Brother. Not welcome back at the farm, Ned reconnects with his family, aligning himself with his sisters: Ambitious writer Miranda (Elizabeth Banks), impulsive young Natalie (Zooey Deschanel), and domestic Liz (Emily Mortimer) living with her inattentive filmmaker husband (Steve Coogan). Though his sisters see him as a nuisance and embarrassment, laid-back Ned is one of the only people capable of coping with the craziness in all their lives. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

When Dylan (Justin Timberlake) moves to New York, the only person in town he knows is Jamie (Mila Kunis), the corporate headhunter who got him hired, in Friends with Benefits. Since they both just had terrible breakups, the two of them agree to have an emotion-free physical relationship. They manage to stay friends during their arrangement, and even after it ends, but even with their shared annoyance with romantic comedies and their cliches, are either of them ready to be less jaded and more open? On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Nick's (Jesse Eisenberg) life has stalled... he hates his pizza delivery job and has nothing going for him in 30 Minutes or Less when he gets roped into a crazy scheme. Dwayne (Danny McBride) and his friend (Nick Swardson) want money to hire a hitman (Michael Pena) to kill Dwayne's domineering father (Fred Ward), but to avoid any connection to himself, Dwayne orders a pizza and hijacks the delivery driver... which means Nick's life just got worse. With a bomb strapped to him and little time to come up with a huge sum of money, Nick grabs his best friend (Aziz Ansari) and lays out a plan: either they rob a bank together, or Nick explodes. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

The Right One

Emma (Anne Hathaway) and Dexter (Jim Sturgess) spend one night together after their university graduation in One Day, but they forge a relationship that spans years. Emma's a working-class girl and Dexter's a wealthy socialite, but they never lose one another as their lives intersect every year. Their relationship grows and changes over the course of twenty years, even as Emma finds another guy (Rafe Spall) and Dexter another girl (Romola Garai), their connection doesn't break. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

George (Freddie Highmore) is a talented highschool senior, but he has a deep fatalistic streak in The Art of Getting By. Obsessed with his eventual death, George spends his time drawing, never paying attention in class, and usually getting in trouble... until he uses his reputation as a troublemaker to help Sally (Emma Roberts). Though the two form a connection, George's outlook on life makes him unromantic and unapproachable, but he's developed a bond with Sally that doesn't fit with his worldview. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Drive-In Fare

When a group of college students set out on a camping trip, movies and urban legend warned them about killer hillbillies in Tucker and Dale vs Evil, but Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine) are just out to fix up their new vacation spot. They save one of the students (Katrina Bowden) from drowning and try to help her, but her friends think she's been taken to a Texas Chainsaw Massacre-style nightmare shack. As the alpha-male college student (Jesse Moss) declares war, Tucker and Dale are horrified to find themselves surrounded by city kids dying due to incompetence, ignorance, and one big misunderstanding. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

A campy horror-anthology film, Chillerama is a feature with four short stories. Adam Rifkin directs and stars in Wadzilla, a 1950's style monster movie where a doctor's (Ray Wise) fertility drug unleashes a giant sperm that attacks New York. Tim Sullivan's I Was a Teenage Wear-Bear sees Sean Paul Lockhart transforming into a creature acting on its desires when influenced by leather-boy bikers. Adolf Hitler (Joel Moore) raises the dead to animate a Jewish monster in Adam Green's Diary of Anne Frankenstein, and a drive-in theater is attacked by zombies in Joe Lynch's Zom B Movie. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

The Belgian faux-documentary Vampires puts a camera crew into the heart of a vampire home... with added protection, since the first two documentary crews were eaten almost immediately. Georges is the patriarch of his vampire family, with his insane and monstrous wife Bertha. Their son is becoming an adult in the vampire world, and their daughter dresses in pink, files down her fangs, and repeatedly attempts suicide in hopes of "dying like a human." They all have a story to tell, if the film crew lives long enough to hear it.

The last piece of his father's antique collecting estate shows up at Ben's (Michael Dorman) college dorm in the form of an ornate box in Needle. The night after Ben shows the box to his friends, it vanishes-- and then his friends start dying. The box's clockwork insides accepts a picture of a person and creates a wax voodoo doll... hurting the doll will wound the actual person. With the machine missing and his friends being killed off, Ben and his brother (Travis Fimmel) have to find out who wants to take revenge on all of them.

Your Place in the World

As a high school senior, Rhoda drunkenly crashed into another car when she looked up to see a second planet Earth appear in the sky in Another Earth. Once she's released from jail, she connects with John (William Mapother), whose wife and son she killed in the accident, posing as a housekeeper. Though she intended to apologize, Rhoda lost her nerve, and she forms a relationship with John hoping to bring some peace to his empty, shattered life... though they both wonder about life on Earth 2, and if their Earth 2 selves have better lives than the ones they live. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Miranda July's The Future is the story of Sophie (July) and Jason (Hamish Linklater) whose lives change when they decide to adopt an injured cat named Paw Paw. Narrated by the cat, the film explores the thirty days before they can bring Paw Paw home and their impending future caring for Paw Paw leading directly to their middle age (which they see as the end of their lives.) As they contemplate their lives, make radical changes on a whim, create characters out of clothing, and re-tell bleak events and upbeat fables, but their crisis is so pronounced it can expand and contract time.

The German adaptation of the 1980s young adult novel, The Wave stars Jurgen Vogel as a teacher proving a point to his students. When his class claims that Nazi Germany couldn't happen today, he begins an experiment. Though he's just trying to illustrate the dangers of cults of personality, the teacher finds himself in front of driven, motivated, identically dressed students willing to do anything for him... which he thinks will win his argument, until it goes completely out of control.

Documentary

Exploring the recently unearthed Chauvet Cave, Werner Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams provides rare footage of the oldest cave paintings known to man. Sealed for thousands of years, the cave offers a look at unspoiled artwork, tools, and remains from over 30,000 years ago, and Herzog both films the findings and speaks with the cultural and archeological authorities in an effort to explore humanity through the lens of history. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

The story of Chastity Bono's gender reassignment to Chaz Bono, Becoming Chaz follows the female-to-male transition, from hormone therapy to surgery. Made an advocate of a misunderstood issue, Chaz documented the process as openly and honestly as possible.

Recording and preserving Tibetan folk music banned by communist China, Tibet in Song began as director Ngawang Choephel's quest to save the music of his home country. Jailed and held as a spy by the Chinese government in the middle of his project, Choephel weaves together Tibetan folk singers, the struggle of Tibetan people through the ages, and his own imprisonment and release.

Family

Gargamel (Hank Azaria), the evil wizard, chases a group of Smurfs into a magic cave and they all emerge in New York City in The Smurfs. Strangers in a strange land, Papa Smurf (Jonathan Winters), Smurfette, Brainy Smurf (Fred Armisen), Gutsy Smurf (Alan Cumming), Clumsy Smurf (Anton Yelchin), Grouchy Smurf (George Lopez) and the rest befriend Neil Patrick Harris, who helps them in the big city until Papa Smurf can get them all back home... but Gargamel is in New York too, and he's still after the Smurfs. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

10-year-old Billy (Bobby Coleman) is still bald from chemotherapy, but determined to do something that will make him a legend before cancer takes him in Snowmen. Billy and his friends try a variety of stunts to find a way into the Guinness Book of World Records, but the friends that support him turn out to be more important than any publicity. With Ray Liotta.

Gifted pro-golfer Luke (Lucas Black) has his faith shaken by a disastrous round of golf while on tour in the family-friendly Seven Days in Utopia. On his way home, he crashes through Robert Duvall's fence and finds him to be a kind mentor, someone who can help the angry young man find peace and salvation and put him back on track. With Melissa Leo.


New this week in our TV New Releases:
30 Rock
Season 5
The cast and crew of TGS with Tracy Jordan try to keep their sketch show on the air amidst dysfunction, neuroses, and showbiz self-obsession. Smallville
Season 10
The 10th and final season of Smallville, where Clark Kent embraces his future and superhero alter-ego.
Southland
Season 2
The police officers working in South Central Los Angeles try to balance their lives against their dangerous job.      

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Week of November 22

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

Kids

Set in a Spielbergian suburb in the late 70s, J.J. Abrams' Super 8 sees 14-year-old Joe and his friends making a movie with a super 8 camera and Alice (Elle Fanning), their new female lead, when they accidentally film an epic train crash. Joe and his friends find themselves holding evidence of the mysterious secret that escaped the train as the Air Force begins to overtake their community, and the kids try to stay together through disappearances and conspiracies while their town becomes a dangerous place. With Kyle Chandler and Ron Eldard. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

In Robert Rodriguez's Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World, Marissa (Jessica Alba) has a secret that her husband (Joel McHale) and stepchildren Rebecca (Rowan Blanchard) and Cecil haven't guessed: she's a spy. With their dad clueless and Marissa off on a mission, Rebecca and Cecil have to become new Spy Kids, solving puzzles and using hi-tech gadgets in order to stop a supervillian (Jeremy Piven) from stealing all the time in the world. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Morgan (David James Elliott) copes with trouble in his personal life by returning to the summer camp of his youth in Rainbow Tribe. Reuniting with his best-friend-turned-camp-director (Ed Quinn), Morgan becomes camp councilor to a wild group of 10-year-olds who help him through his difficult time as they all have the best summer of their lives.

Atrocities

Based on a true story, Latif (Dominic Cooper) is brought to Uday Hussein (also Cooper) to serve as his double in The Devil's Double. Pulled from military service, Latif doesn't want to work for Uday, but as the son of Saddam Hussein, Uday generally gets what he wants... even if it takes kidnapping, torture, or murder to get it. As Latif is forced into his new position, he finds himself trapped in the employ of a psychopath who derives perverse pleasure from owning his life. With Ludivine Sagnier. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Julia (Kristin Scott Thomas) is an American reporter in Paris, asked to cover the World War II round-up of Jewish citizens of France during the Nazi occupation in Sarah's Key. Flashing from present-day Julia's investigation and the life of young Sarah 60 years before, the film pieces together the story of Sarah's struggles to survive in a nightmarish time in French history and Julia's research into that time, and the threads that connect them. With Aidan Quinn.

Hack & Slash

Conan the Barbarian
Now & Then
Born in the middle of a battlefield, Conan (Jason Momoa) is destined to be a warrior in Conan the Barbarian. Conan is driven by finding the man who razed his village and killed his father (Ron Perlman)... but when he discovers the man he's hunting is the powerful warlord Khlar Zym (Stephen Lang) his hunt becomes an epic quest. Protecting the maiden (Rachel Nichols) that Zym is tracking, Conan brutally slices his way through mercenary hordes to finally confront Khlar Zym and his evil sorceress daughter (Rose McGowan). On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Beginning with an introduction from director Yoshihiro Nishimura where he encourages viewers to enjoy his film with a beer (or other special beverage) in hand, the Japanese splatter movie Helldriver is set in a zombie infected future where half of the country has been walled off in quarantine. Kika, a schoolgirl wounded and reassembled as a cybernetic super-soldier, leads a hysterically bloody expedition into the zombie controlled wastelands to defeat the zombie queen (Eihi Shiina) once and for all. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Documentary

A film about a group of people who came out as gay after the age of 50, Out Late explores the lives of four people and their lives in and out of the closet. Detailing the struggles of their lives (and sometimes marriages) in the less-than-tolerant 1930s, 40s, and 50s, the film's subjects tell the stories of times when coming out "just wasn't done."

Telling the story of twenty years of Pearl Jam, Cameron Crowe's rockumentary Pearl Jam Twenty covers the beginnings of the band, rising from the ashes of Mother Love Bone, finding new singer Eddie Vedder, and dealing with their sudden, instant fame... as well as their later days, and how the band evolved.

Christmas

Wayne (Dave Foley), one of Santa's elves, makes sure the houses are ready for Santa's visit in Prep & Landing, but he's upset when he doesn't get a promotion he wants. Upset about still working for Prep & Landing, Wayne's stuck with a goofy new assistant (Derek Richardson) and starts to slack off at his job... which could have disastrous results for Christmas.

Belle is preparing the castle for Christmas in Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, but the many magical objects in the castle are afraid a special Christmas will end Beast's curse and make them obsolete. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Week of November 15

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

Starting Over

When ernest, non-cynical Larry (Tom Hanks) loses his job because of his lack of a college education, he enrolls in community college in Larry Crowne. Beginning his college education in his fifties, Larry's life undergoes drastic changes: he buys a scooter from his neighbor (Cedric the Entertainer), attracting the attention of the girl (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) who leads the school's scooter gang, someone who re imagines Larry's clothes, hair, and home. Along with his new lease on life, Larry also develops an unexpected crush on one of his professors (Julia Roberts). With Bryan Cranston. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Written by playwrite Horton Foote, Main Street unfolds in a North Carolina town in decline. The town's future could change when a Texas businessman (Colin Firth) rents a warehouse from Georgianna (Ellen Burstyn), though her niece (Patricia Clarkson) has some reservations about the newcomer's honesty and intentions. As the town's future is decided, the locals continue their lives, including the local cop (Orlando Bloom), the girl who dreams of life outside the small town (Amber Tamblyn), and an unscrupulous white collar businesman (Andrew McCarthy). On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Odd Pairings

Following the death of his father (Christopher Plummer), Oliver (Ewan McGregor) contemplates his life, and his parents' lives, in Beginners. As Oliver starts a new relationship with a French actress (Melanie Laurent), his time with her is colored by his grief over his father, his sense of self, reflections of love and life across several decades, and what it means to be here, now. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Shy, unassuming Woodrow and his brash, outgoing friend Aiden spend their time making flamethrowers and modifying cars to rule a Road Warrior-style wasteland after the eventual apocalypse in Bellflower. When Woodrow meets Milly, she's initially drawn to his strange lifestyle and attempts to impress her, but trouble in their relationship spirals out of control, especially with access to weapons and an ability to blur apocalyptic fantasy into heartbreaking reality. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Griff (Ryan Kwanten) spends his days in an office, bullied by an abusive co-worker (Toby Schmitz), but at night he fights crime in a superhero costume in the Australian Griff the Invisible. Though his well-meaning brother derides him for living in a fantasy world, Melody (Maeve Dermody), who also lives in a world of impossibility and wonder, sees him as a kindred spirit and encourages his superhero alter ego. On DVD and Blu-Ray.


Uptight Marcus and boyish slacker Danny, estranged brothers, return to their father's home for the reading of his will in The Drummond Will. Inheriting the house (and all of its contents), the brothers consider their options when they find one of their father's friends has broken in to retrieve a bag of unexplained money. Before they can decide what to do, people who know about the money begin to accidentally, comically die-- Danny tries to deal with the situation with optimism while Marcus has neurotic episodes, but they have to work together to stay out of jail and figure out why people keep dying.

Dawn's (Charlotte Gainsbourg) life in an idyllic country home is shattered when a car accident kills her husband (Aden Young) in The Tree. Of her four children, eight-year-old Simone tells Dawn she can hear her father speaking to her through the the branches of a tree in their yard. Dawn finds comfort in her daughter's imagination, and finds herself spending more and more time at the tree, but her blooming relationship with Marton Csokas puts her past life at odds with her ability to move forward.

"I remember a guy from New York saying to me 'So, New Zealand... who's a big comedy act in New Zealand?' and I said 'Some yodeling, lesbian twins.' And at that point he just kind of went 'Oh look, there's someone I know," and ran off..."
A documentary about the New Zealand comedic musical duo, The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls tells the story of Jools and Lynda Topp, from their childhood on a farm to their life on stage, playing songs and adopting characters as part of their show. Celebrating their songs, variety-show stage performance, infectious enthusiasm, and out-and-proud lifestyle, the film paints their portrait through interviews and recorded live performances.

When Alvin gives away his harmonica to a sick boy for Christmas, he has to find a way to play his harmonica solo at Carnegie Hall in Christmas with the Chipmunks. Determined not to tell Dave that he doesn't have an instrument, Alvin asks Simon and Theodore to raise enough money to replace the harmonica and make their Christmas concert a success.


New this week in our TV New Releases:
Being Human
Season 1
The remake of the British Being Human introduces three unusual roommates to a Boston neighborhood as they attempt to lead normal lives, despite being a ghost, a werewolf, and a vampire.
Whitechapel
The Ripper Returns
When the new Detective Inspector suspects a murder might be the work of a Jack the Ripper copycat, no one believes him, but as the body count rises and the trend continues, he has to stop the killer from becoming the next Ripper.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Week of November 8

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

In Series

The final movie of the Harry Potter series, part two of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows finds Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione (Emma Watson), and Ron (Rupert Grint) reaching the end of their years-long confrontation with the evil Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes). With Voldemort holding the incredibly powerful Elder Wand and Harry searching for the Sword of Gryffindor, the two of them are destined to face off in their ultimate battle as Hogwarts becomes the site of the largest battle in the world of Harry Potter. With Alan Rickman. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

The first part of a proposed trilogy adapting the famous Ayn Rand novel, Atlas Shrugged: Part 1 is set in a future where gas prices have made train travel essential. Dagny Taggart (Taylor Schilling), CEO of a railroad, joins forces with Henry Rearden (Grant Bowler), an entrepreneur whose new experimental metal could save her company. As two, strong, self-reliant businesspeople, they're naturally poised for success, but liaisons from the government (Michael Lerner), unscrupulous businessmen (Jsu Garcia), and the crumbling society around them are determined to undermine "the people who move the world." On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Body-Swap

Lifelong friends Dave (Jason Bateman) and Mitch (Ryan Reynolds) envy each other's lives in The Change-Up, but before they can say "Freaky Friday" they wake up in each other's bodies. Low-rent actor and lifelong slacker Mitch has no idea how to live Dave's life, married to Leslie Mann, raising children, and going to work as a high-power lawyer. Though Dave wanted Mitch's man child lifestyle, he's not prepared for Mitch's compromising positions, troubled relationship with his father (Alan Arkin), or the ability to live like an unmarried man and follow through on his crush on a beautiful co-worker (Olivia Wilde). Through a comedy of errors, they each see their own lives from a new perspective and discover what they might be doing wrong. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Quiet Lives

The independent Putty Hill begins the day after the death of a young man in a small community, drifting between fly-on-the-wall observations of the people in the town to interviewing his friends and family. As the film explores the community's questions about life and death, it builds a portrait of the community and the characters in a naturalistic, cinema verite style.

Gus (Zach Gilford) is a fishing savant in The River Why, seeking his own path after rebelling against his famous, fly-fishing father (William Hurt) and mother (Kathleen Quinlan). As he sets out on the road, he begins a quest for enlightenment on the water, the one thing he truly understands, but Gus' journey is complicated when he meets a tomboy fly-fisher named Eddy (Amber Heard).

National Geographic's Life in a Day asked people around the world to shoot video and upload clips to YouTube. The film is assembled from worldwide submissions of July 24, 2010, putting together a patchwork of life around the world as submitted by the self-filmed.



Catherine Breillat's The Sleeping Beauty creates a blessed/curse princess Anastasia, a tomboy destined to fall into a 100-year sleep. Twisting and subverting classical fairytale logic, the film provides an adult fairytale full of magical faeries, ghost trains, a snow queen, dwarf station masters, and not-so-heroic princes.

Vince (Sam Riley) steals someone else's invitation, follows elaborate instructions, and ends up the contestant in a dangerous, illegal, underground game in 13. Though Vince has no idea what he's gotten himself into, he cannot leave the game, stuck with players who been sold to the game runners (Mickey Rourke) or hijacked from institutions (Ray Winstone), and the gamblers (Jason Statham) invested in the fates of the players. One police officer (David Zayas) might be able to intervene... but only if Vince cooperates. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Merry Christmas

The newest Barbie Christmas movie is A Perfect Christmas, as Barbie and her friends take a musical vacation from their New York home to the town of Tannenbaum. In appreciation for Tannenbaum's hospitality, the friends use their musical talents to put on a show and give them all a perfect Christmas.

A group of golden retriever puppies help an older married couple play matchmaker in A Golden Christmas 2: The Second Tail. Making sure everyone finds true happiness in time for Christmas. When the dogs interrupt a marriage proposal, only the puppies can make it right again.

An elf runs away from the north pole with Santa's sleigh and presents in Beethoven's Christmas Adventure, but he crashes in the suburbs. With the bag of presents in the wrong hands, it's up to Beethoven (voiced by Tom Arnold) to get the bag back and save Christmas. Narrated by John Cleese. With Curtis Armstrong.


New this week in our TV New Releases:
Doctor Who
Series 6 Part 2
The Doctor continues his adventures through time and space, following the connections between Amy Pond, her new baby Melody, and the mystery of River Song.
Bramwell
Series 2
Victorian-era doctor Eleanor Bramwell runs a free hospital for the poor in East London in defiance of the male-run medical community.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Week of November 1

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

Mater takes the lead

When a former oil tycoon (Eddie Izzard) hosts a race to promote his new biofuel, he brings in Piston Cup champion Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) to compete in Pixar's Cars 2, but Mater (Larry the Cable Guy), McQueen's tow-truck sidekick, is off on another adventure. Accidentally teamed up with a pair of British spies (Michael Caine and Emily Mortimer) who think his personality is the cover of a brilliant American agent, Mater is thrown into a comic wrong-man story, evading enemy agents and getting to the heart of an oil/biofuel conspiracy almost in spite of himself. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

The Meaning of Love

Cal (Steve Carell) is shocked when his wife (Julianne Moore) says she wants a divorce during the middle of dinner in Crazy Stupid Love, but is too shocked to do anything. Depressed and moping at a bar, Cal is rescued by Jacob (Ryan Gosling), a hyper-confident playboy determined to help Cal be an effective single man, wooing women and getting over his divorce. Though both men seem to be doing well, new women don't change the fact that Cal will never stop loving his wife, and Jacob is inspired to settle down when he meets Hannah (Emma Stone), who's unlike any woman he's ever met. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

As a young girl, Mona Gray (Jessica Alba) gave up everything she enjoyed in An Invisible Sign as part of a "deal with the universe" to heal her ailing father (John Shea). As a young woman, this deal has stunted her ability to relate to anything but math, a passion she and her father shared, and she's unprepared when her mother (Sonia Braga) asks her to move out and find a life of her own. Finding a job as an elementary school math teacher, she begins to reconnect with the world trough her 8-year-old students... and the science teacher (Chris Messina) determined to be a part of her world.

Baya Benmahmoud (Sara Forestier) is a free-spirited, left-leaning girl who sleeps with right-wing men to change their politics in the French The Names of Love. When she meets Arthur Martin (Jacques Gamblin), a middle-of-the-road scientist, the two form a stronger relationship based on each of their complicated histories.

Years Past

When an elderly gentleman (Hal Holbrook) walks into a traveling circus in the middle of packing up, he's nearly sent away, but he begins to tell the story of his life in the Benzini Brothers circus in the 1930s in Water for Elephants. As a young man, Jacob (Robert Pattinson) dropped out of veterinary hopped a train and found himself put to work in the circus. The circus' owner, August (Christoph Waltz), puts Jacob's schooling to use, working with the animals and making sure the show's star attraction brings in the crowds... but the star attraction is August's wife, Marlena (Reese Witherspoon), and as Jacob and Marlena grow closer, August shows his dangerous side. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Wayne Wang's Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is the story of two "sworn sisters" in 19th-century China, Snow Flower (Gianna Jun) and Lilly (Li Bing Bing). Separated by their families, they stay connected by writing in a secret language in the folds of a silk fan, maintaining their friendship through almost impossible hardship. The fan is discovered by two friends in New York (also Jun and Li), and the story of Snow Flow and Lilly's friendship redefines their own lives as well. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Documentaries

In Bill Cunningham New York, Bill is celebrating his 80th birthday. During his decades pedaling a Schwin around New York City, taking pictures, Bill Cunningham's photographs were made famous in the pages of Vogue, Details, and eventually the New York Times. Happy to have found his calling, Cunningham continues to shoot people and fashions, more drawn to collecting culture and recording looks than to fame or even publication.


Errol Morris' Tabloid tells the widely publicized story of Joyce McKinney as her image evolved in newspapers, interviewing McKinney herself and the people who were around her during the events that made her notorious. Beginning with her initial fame as a kidnapper, the film follows her notoriety as she fights to be with the man she loves through to her more recent headlines, measuring the gulf between all the versions of the stories being told.

A look into the aftermath of Sierra Leone's civil war, Fambul Tok follows Sierra Leonean John Caulker as he travels from village to village with a system to heal broken communities. Caulker's Fambul Tok (translated as "Family Talk") brings victims and aggressors together, seeking apologies and forgiveness, which becomes more challenging as the level of the crimes being addressed rises.

When Ken Kesey, Neal Cassady, and The Merry Pranksters hit the road in a brightly painted bus in 1964, they filmed the adventure intending to record a documentary of their cross-country journey. Though their movie was never completed, Alex Gibney's Magic Trip uses the Pranksters' raw footage, along with current reflections of the times, to flesh out the story of their psychedelic experiment.

Bad Bad Men

Masked bandits (including Ben Mendelsohn and Cam Gigandet) break into Nicolas Cage's opulent house in Joel Schumacher's Trespass. They're searching for his wealth, but Cage is concerned about his wife (Nicole Kidman) and daughter (Liana Liberato)-- if he gives the robbers what they want, what's their incentive to keep his family alive? As they maneuver for control of the situation, secrets start to emerge, complicating an already difficult caper. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

In a post apocalyptic world where there are no guns, an aimless stranger (Josh Hartnett) wanders into town in Bunraku. Set in a candy-colored, comic book town the stranger navigates hyper-stylized gangs armed with swords, knives and axes, aiming for The Woodsman (Ron Perlman), the vicious gangster who runs everything. With Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Fairytale

Mary's (Elle Fanning) Christmas becomes a fantasy adventure when her Uncle Albert (Nathan Lane) gives her a nutcracker as a gift in The Nutcracker: The Untold Story. The Nutcracker (Shirley Henderson) comes to life and whisks Mary off on a fairy tale journey with Rat Kings, Snow Fairies, adventure, and magic.On DVD and Blu-Ray.


New this week in our TV New Releases:
Californication
Series 4
Hank emerges from jail to find his role as the inspiration for Mia's book has become public, and he could be facing more serious charges and a real prison sentence.
Saxondale
Series 1 & 2
Middle aged former roadie Tommy Saxondale (Steve Coogan) now runs a pest control business, but still sees himself as a Mustang-driving, leather-jacketed rebel.