Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Week of December 20

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Woody

Widely considered a return-to-form for Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris sends writer Gil (Owen Wilson) and his wife Inez (Rachel McAdams) to vacation in France. Gil dreams of giving up his lucrative screenwriting career and becoming a novelist, but his conservative in-laws (Kurt Fuller and Mimi Kennedy) dismiss his ambitions and his wife wants to stay in California. While Inez and her parents go dancing with pseudo-intellectual blowhard Paul (Michael Sheen) and his wife, Gil explores Paris on his own... inexplicably ending up in the 1920s. Each night he goes out alone, Gil travels to the past, confiding in Luis Bunel, Man Ray, and Salvador Dali (surrealists who easily accept his story of time travel), having Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates) take a look at his novel, and becoming enchanted by Picasso's mistress Adrianna (Marion Cotillard). On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Action and Suspense

Dramatizing the 2007/2008 financial crisis, the dramatic thriller Margin Call begins with Stanley Tucci being fired from the risk management division of a large investment bank... but before he goes, he hands off a USB drive to one of the bank's junior members (Zachary Quinto). Examining the files on the drive, he discovers financial instability that could quickly rise to crisis levels, and takes the information step-by-step, up through executives (including Kevin Spacey, Simon Baker, and Demi Moore) to the CEO (Jeremy Irons), where the bank is forced to make a dangerous decision: protect the company or preserve the balance of the global economy. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Writer/Producer Luc Besson's Colombiana blends the professional hitwoman of his La Femme Nikita with his little girl bent on revenge from The Professional as young Cataleya sees a drug lord's capo (Jordi Molla) kill her family. Escaping Colombia, she arrives in America where she begs her uncle (Cliff Curtis) to teach her how to get her revenge... As an adult, Cataleya (Zoe Saldana) works for her uncle as an assassin, but she's also been murdering the people connected to her family's death, though the drug lord she wants is protected by the CIA (Callum Blue). With an agent (Lennie James) tracking her killings and a casual boyfriend (Michael Vartan) yearning to know more about her, she has to kill the drug lord she's been hunting for years before time runs out. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Straw Dogs
Now & Then
Relocating the story to the backwoods of Mississippi, the remake of Straw Dogs returns beautiful actress Amy (Kate Bosworth) to her small, country home, along with her husband, David (James Marsden). David isn't used to the country, and is intimidated by the louder, brasher countryfolk like Charlie (Alexander Skarsgard), the man they hired to fix the roof of their house. With tensions between city and country increasing, and a history between Charlie and Amy, one incident seperates a clash between those who ask and those who take, men who stand up and men who back down, and the civil and the brutal. With James Woods, Dominic Purcell, and Walton Goggins. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Unbeknownst to one another, two brothers sign up to compete in the same mixed martial arts tournament in Warrior. Tommy (Tom Hardy), the younger brother, beats a professional fighter in a gym and becomes an instant internet celebrity; he enlists his father (Nick Nolte) as a trainer and prepares to compete in a tournament called Sparta. Older brother Brendan (Joel Edgerton) is a teacher struggling to support his wife (Jennifer Morrison) and daughters, and he and his friend (Frank Grillo) join the Sparta tournament for the cash prize. The brothers both have their reasons to fight, and their stories make them popular figures in the tournament, but their family history makes any and all exchanges between Tommy and Brendan explosive. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Having survived the Bolivian Army's barrage (as depicted in the final scene of Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid), Butch changes his name and lives a quiet life in Blackthorn. As an older man calling himself James Blackthorn (Sam Shepard), he's saved up some money and is ready to return home to the United States. On his journey, he loses everything, and finds himself on the road with a young thief (Eduardo Noriega) and returning to the life of crime he tried to leave behind. With Stephen Rea.

Real

Based on a true story of a dolphin who lost her tail, Dolphin Tale stars young Nathan Gamble as Sawyer Nelson, a boy who discovers the injured dolphin on the beach. Dr. Hasket (Harry Connick Jr) takes the dolphin to his marine hospital, naming her "Winter," and Sawyer becomes part of her care when Dr. Hasket sees the effect the boy has on the dolphin's recovery. Along with an expert in animal prosthetics (Morgan Freeman), they work to restore Winter's life, but they have to work hard against pressures from the outside world to save the dolphin against impossible odds. With Ashley Judd and Kris Kristofferson. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

From the live stage performance of the popular show, Glee: The Concert assembles Rachel, Finn, Kurt, Artie, Quinn, Lauren, Brittany, Mercedes, Puck, and the rest for a live singing and dancing revue including favorites from the television show. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Bloody Funny

Burke (Simon Pegg) and Hare (Andy Serkis) are a pair of low level hustlers in 1820's Scotland in John Landis' horror/comedy Burke & Hare. With no money for rent and Hare's wife (Jessica Hynes) fighting to keep their inn afloat, the boys stumble into an interesting opportunity: one of the inn's lodgers has died. With Edinburgh being a center of modern medical thought, Burke and Hare are accidentally in possession of something of value: a fresh cadaver. With two competing doctors (Tom Wilkinson and Tim Curry) scrambling to outperform one another, Burke and Hare could be rich men... if they can keep up a fresh supply of corpses.

Like October's Rare Exports, the Dutch Saint Nick explores the darker origins of the Santa Claus myth. According to legend, every 32 years a full moon will rise on the December 5th celebration of Sinterklaas, and the violent Bishop Niklas and his horde will rise from the grave and take revenge during the full moon. Only Officer Goert, who was six years old during the last Sinterklaas full moon and saw the killer bishop, knows what's coming... but no one will believe him.


New this week in our TV New Releases:
Futurama
Season 6.2
The second half of the newest season of the recently-ressurected Futurama, back by popular demand.

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