Week of January 31st

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It's a Dangerous World

Ryan Gosling is a Hollywood stunt driver who sometimes hires himself out, Transporter-like, as a getaway driver in Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive. Working in a garage with a down-on-his-luck schemer (Bryan Cranston), he's about to find his fortune on the race track partnered with a pair of small time gangsters (Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman)... until he takes on a job to help the girl down the hall (Carey Mulligan). Trying to protect her, he sets aside his professionalism and gets drawn into a situation more complicated and dangerous than he could have anticipated, putting everyone in his life in danger. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Outlaw Juliette Flowers (Lizzy Caplan) is on a mission to recover the body of Ransom Pride (Scott Speedman), gunned down in an arms deal gone wrong, in The Last Rites of Ransom Pride. Ransom's brother Champ (Jon Foster) is sent by their father (Dwight Yoakam) into the desolate, western landscape with Juliette as she tries to reclaim her lost lover, but their journey is packed with eccentric characters and the dangerous rogues of the old west. With Peter Dinklage and Kris Kristofferson.

When a recent murder points to a long-dead Soviet agent, code-named Cassius, the government call retired CIA agent Paul Stephenson (Richard Gere) in The Double. Stephenson was the leading expert on Cassius, but Ben Geary (Topher Grace), a young recruit who wrote his master's thesis on Cassius, thinks he might have picked up on something the older expert may have missed. If Cassius is still alive, they're both in mortal danger, and in a world of spies and assassins, that danger can come from the unlikeliest places. With Martin Sheen. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Poetic pulp film director Beat Takeshi returns to the Yakuza genre with Outrage: Way of the Yakuza, where a simple misunderstanding triggers an escalating series of violent retaliations between two gangster clans. When members of the family take action against one boss (Jun Kunimura), the slight can't go unanswered, and allegiances are shifted as soldiers carry out their bloody orders until the family can be at peace again. With Ryo Case. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Twin sisters, a youth group leader, and a rock singer are forced to work together when they find a body in the trunk of their car in Dead Hooker in a Trunk. A loud, bloody, low budget love letter to grindhouse cinema, the plot throws together a Badass, a Geek, a Junkie, and a Goody Two Shoes as they try to find out why there's a body in the trunk, who put it there, and whether or not they're next.

Tony (Wood Harris) grew up on the mean streets of Detroit, but left street life for law school in Joy Road. Living a life of social events and high profile work, he tries to ignore his sister's (N'Bushe Wright) pleas for him to help a gangster arrested for a triple homicide. As Tony's dragged further into the case, his public image is attacked, but he begins to suspect a coverup that reaches from local politics to the privatized prisons and a system that would make easy scapegoats of anyone who lives in the ghetto.

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Sci-Fi/Action

In a world where everyone grows up to be 25 forever, money has been replaced by trading the time left in people's lifespans in Andrew Niccol's In Time. Will (Justin Timberlake) grew up in the ghetto and never had more than 24 hours to spend, but his life changes when he inherits a century from a stranger. Hiding in high society, he kidnaps Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried), the daughter of a time lending/banking entrepreneur (Vincent Kartheiser), while escaping arrest for stealing the time he was given. Returning to the underworld, Will and Sylvia have to survive time-stealing gangs (Alex Pettyfer) and time-enforcing cops (Cillian Murphy) long enough to upset a system where the poor could die at any minute so the rich can live forever. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Picking up where the first film left off, Gantz II: Perfect Answer rejoins the slapdash crew of black suited warriors as they're forced into battles with strange aliens. As their mission goals become more and more questionable, the group is forced to contend with hard choices when all their decisions are morally questionable. Even the members driven to do the right thing are compromised when they have no choice but to draw swords and guns.

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Competition

Kim (Felicity Jones) gets a job to help her dad (Bill Bailey) with bills in Chalet Girl, working in a chalet in the Alps, catering to rich clients at an upscale ski resort. Her fellow chalet girl (Tamsin Egerton) doesn't have much use for Kim, who can't ski and doesn't look high class, but when a friend (Ken Duken) teaches her to snowboard, it's obvious she has natural talent... With a snowboarding competition coming up, Kim's driven to prove that she's more than a chalet girl, and grabbing a championship can win her the boy she likes (Ed Westick). With Sophia Bush.

Three very different birders (passionate, driven bird watchers) are on the same path in The Big Year: Brad (Jack Black), a cubicle-bound programmer, Stu (Steve Martin), the wealthy head of a large company, and Kenny (Owen Wilson), the alpha-birder who holds the record for most birds spotted in a year. As Stu and Brad both contemplate putting their lives on hold for a "Big Year," a year dedicated to birding, Kenny starts to worry that they might overtake his record, and the three find themselves in direct competition. Narrated by John Cleese. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

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Art Film

Film Socialisme is the newest release by Jean-Luc Godard. Split into three distinct sections (a multi-cultural cruise ship, children holding their parents at a tribunal for equitable treatment, and a quickly evolving series of clips that spin through all human history), Godard continues the densely symbolic exploration of humanity through film he began over fifty years ago.

Delving into the world of painter Pieter Bruegel's "The Way to Cavalry," The Mill & the Cross explores a mid-1500s awash in woodsmen cutting, musicians playing, and red-jacketed, Spanish militiamen. The sparse and painterly film casts Rutger Hauer, Michael York, and Charlotte Rampling, but it eschews dialog in favor of painterly world-building and visual storytelling, fleshing out a historic, symbolic world.

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Musicality

Ethan (Alessandro Nivola) is on tour with his band when a former groupie (Elisabeth Shue) surprises him in Janie Jones-- he has a 13-year-old daughter named Janie (Abigail Breslin). Ethan's not just unprepared to be a father, he has trouble with every aspect of his life... chasing away his girlfriend and breaking up his band. After endless bad behavior and bad decisions, Janie's the only person left in Ethan's life, and she becomes not just his only friend, but she joins him on stage as well.

The story of a Texas high school band that became a popular touring act from 1968 to 1977, Thunder Soul is a documentary about a black band that broke through the color barriers of the time to gain international acclaim. Narrated by Jamie Foxx, the film not only recounts the groups formation and rise, but orchestrates a current reunion under the band's now-92-year-old bandleader.

Frizzy-haired, awkward social outcast Spork (Savannah Stehlin) is ridiculed in school by the blonde, popular mean girls. She finds herself among friends with the school's other outsiders, who help coach Spork for a middle school dance contest that could give her the chance to one-up the people who look down on her.

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Spooky

A prequel set in the Norwegian camp that discovered by the characters in the 1982 The Thing, the new The Thing sends ambitious Dr. Halvorson (Ulrich Thomsen) to recruit American paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) to join his Antarctic expedition. Kate's brought in because the team at the Norwegian base (including Eric Christian Olsen, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and Joel Edgerton) discovered a space ship that had been buried for thousands of years, and a lone alien frozen in the ice. When they thaw the creature in the ice, the body count starts to rise, and Kate has to convince the survivors that whatever's hunting them can pass as human. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Will (Daniel Craig) has just quit his high-profile corporate job and moved his wife (Rachel Weisz) and two little girls into a new house in Dream House. When the children begin seeing strange, inexplicable things, the parents think it's just imaginations running wild, but when Will finds a group of teenagers in his basement celebrating the murders that occurred in his new home, he's forced to face the truth: everyone who lives in that house dies. While his across-the-street neighbor (Naomi Watts) tries to befriend him, she seems to know something she isn't saying, and the secrets in Will's house could endanger everyone around him. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

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Disney's talking puppies are back in Treasure Buddies, where the Buddies travel to Egypt, befriend a baby camel and a monkey, and search booby-trapped tombs for the greatest treasure in the animal kingdom: the lost collar of Cleocatra.

Week of January 24th

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Everyone Loves an Underdog

Former boxer Charlie (Hugh Jackman) hasn't transitioned well in a world where human boxers have been replaced by robots in Real Steel-- he owes money to a boxing promoter (Kevin Durand), his robot is destroyed, and he's obligated to take care of a son he's never known. When Charlie runs into a childhood friend (Evangeline Lilly) who's taken over her father's gym, he bonds with his son as they fix up an old obsolete fighting robot. Together, father and son take their underdog robot to an unlikely series of victories until they have to face a well funded champion (Karl Yune) and his state of the art robot... Can a family and their pet project defeat the corporate giants? On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Based on a true story, The 5th Quarter stars Ryan Merriman as Jon, a college linebacker whose life is changed by the death of his little brother. While his parents (Aidan Quinn and Andie Macdowell) struggle with the loss of a son, Jon dedicates his football season to his brother; he's "playing for two" now. Driven to be the best he can be to honor his brother's memory, Jon becomes an example that could lead his normally-lackluster team to excellence.

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Holding Together

Lynn (Ellen Barkin) travels across the country for her estranged son's wedding in Another Happy Day, navigating the tensions within her complicated family. While the groom was raised by Lynn's ex-husband (Thomas Hayden Church) and his new wife (Demi Moore), Lynn has raised her daughter (Kate Bosworth) and two boys from her second marriage on her own, and their family events are fraught with tension. Overseen by the family grandparents (Ellen Burstyn and George Kennedy), the wedding opens long-buried troubles throughout the family both comic and tragic.
27-year-old Adam's (Joseph Gordon Levitt) life is turned upside-down when he's diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in 50/50. As he begins his chemotherapy treatments, shaves his head, and starts to deal with his new situation, he's helped by his loutish best friend (Seth Rogen), girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard), and starts session with an inexperienced therapist (Anna Kendrick). Knowing his chances are fifty-fifty, Adam tries to stay positive, meeting older cancer patients (Philip Baker Hall and Matt Frewer) and learning how to live with his disease, but he's got a difficult time ahead and no guarantee of a positive outcome. With Anjelica Huston. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Kaja maintains a relentlessly chipper attitude in the Norwegian Happy Happy, a small town schoolteacher with a repressed, distant husband and their young son. When a seemingly perfect couple move in across the street, they're everything Kaja imagines perfection to be: intelligent, elegant, and urbane. The relationship between the couples illuminates the troubles within each, but the ever-optimistic Kaja is determined to find her happiness however she can.

Alice (Isabelle Huppert) is a "specialist," a high-priced prostitute catering to the Parisian upper-class in Special Treatment. Treating her profession with more and more disdain over time, she's begun to view her clients a lump sums and the amenities they afford her... and her professional attitude is mirrored by psychoanalyst Xavier (Bouli Lanners), who sits silently as his patients bare their souls. As their worlds overlap, they discover how much they actually have in common and they struggle to overcome their professional distance, something neither of them have done in a long time.

Young Enoch has little attachment to life in Gus Van Sant's Restless: his best friend is the ghost of a WWII kamikaze pilot (Ryo Kase) and he visits strangers' funerals for fun. When Enoch meets Annabelle (Mia Wasikowska) at a funeral, the two begin an unlikely relationship, and they bond over their shared relationship with mortality... but they each have their reasons for their attitude toward life and death, and they can't avoid them forever. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Based on actual events, The Whistleblower is the story of Kathy Bolkovac (Rachel Weisz), a Nebraska cop who takes a U.N. peacekeeping job in Bosnia in 1999. As she takes part in raids within the Bosnian sex trade, she sees girls forced into slavery ignored by the United Nations, and the corruption and payoffs that keep the system from changing. Finding an ally in the head of the Human Rights Coalition (Vanessa Redgrave) and an internal affairs officer (David Strathairn) who sees how dangerous the situation is, Kathy is entangled in a scandal the U.N. will do anything to avoid. With Monica Bellucci.

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Documenting a tape-trading phenomenon, Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure is the story of two roommates who taped the loud and constant arguments of Pete and Jay, their next-door-neighbors. As the audio cassettes of the Shut Up Little Man circulated the world, they inspired an audio verite phenomenon, inspiring comics, plays, and even brokered a movie deal.

The Nine Nation Animation disc includes nine animated shorts from around the world, providing an anthology that reaches from South Africa to Norway.

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New this week in our TV New Releases:

Timmy Time Timmy Takes a Bath

Timmy the lamb cleans up in episodes of Aardman Animation's Timmy Time.

Week of January 17

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Behind the Curtain

Though he's young, Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling) has more experience than most campaign managers, and he's found a candidate he truly respects in The Ides of March. Working on the Democratic Primaries campaigns for presidential hopeful Mike Morris (George Clooney), Meyers has found a candidate he can truly believe in, and if he can guide Morris into the White House, he can improve people's lives. Getting involved with a young intern (Evan Rachel Wood) and struggling under the Senior Campaign Manager (Philip Seymour Hoffman), Meyers uncovers secrets, agendas, and conspiracies that force him to cope with the hard truths of political life. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Available for the first time in the united states, The Dragon Tattoo Trilogy provides extended versions of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest on DVD and Blu-Ray, with hours of additional footage and bonus features.

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Growing Up

Nigel's (Freddie Highmore) interested in cooking, but his mother (Victoria Hamilton) can't offer him much culinary help in Toast. When his mother passes away, his father (Ken Stott) begins a relationship with Mrs. Potter (Helena Bonham Carter)... and her lemon meringue pie. Nigel does the only thing he can: studies hard in his home economics class, advances his cooking skills, and competes with Potter for his father's attention with his skills in the kitchen.

Free spirit Danielle (Juno Temple) hits the road in a journey of self-discovery in Dirty Girl. With her mother (Milla Jovovich) ready to marry a Mormon (William H. Macy) who disapproves of her uninhibited lifestyle, she uses a class assignment as an excuse to take her class partner on a road trip from their Oklahoma home to California in search of her real father. Together, they travel through 1980s America with Joan, the sack of flour the teacher entrusted to them as their "baby."

Innocent and naive Bucky (Nick Swardson) believes he's found his true calling when he discovers his parents (Edward Hermann and Miriam Flynn) were 70's porn stars in Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star. Heading for Hollywood, Bucky is determined to become the biggest adult star in the world, but there are two obstacles he needs to overcome: he knows nothing about adult movies, and even if he does get into the industry, he'll have the smallest penis ever filmed. With Don Johnson and Christina Ricci.

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Action

Ruthless warlord Hou Jie (Andy Lau) does whatever it takes to maintain control in Shaolin, killing weaker warlords and betraying sworn brothers. When his own philosophies are turned on him, Hou Jie loses everything and finds himself at the mercy of Shaolin monks. Building a new life in the temple, he learns the error of his ways, but his former apprentice (Nicholas Tse) has become a brutal and murderous leader in his absence. When news of Hou Jie's location is leaked, Hou Jie and the monks must defend the Shaolin Temple and dethrone the unjust warlord. With Jackie Chan. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Nathan (Taylor Lautner) thinks he's a normal highschool boy when his life suddenly falls apart in Abduction. When a Serbian terrorist (Michael Nyqvist) finds him, Nathan discovers his whole life has been an illusion: the people he thought were his parents (Jason Isaacs and Maria Bello) are CIA operatives, and his psychiatrist (Sigourney Weaver) is an agent protecting him on orders from his real father. On the run with a girl (Lilly Collins) from school, they have to find out why they're being chased and how they can survive when there's no one to trust. With Alfred Molina. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Corporal Rains (Danny Dyer) is inducted into a World War II commando unit in Age of Heroes, trained by Major Jones (Sean Bean) for a dangerous mission behind enemy lines: parachute into Nazi-occupied Norway and capture technology that could change the course of the war. If the British commando unit doesn't execute every step of their plan with crackerjack timing, they'll have to fight their way to the Swedish border against overwhelming odds. With Izabella Miko.

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Real Life

Adapted from the one-man stage play, Thurgood stars Laurence Fishburn as Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to sit on the United States Supreme Court. Talking from the stage, Thurgood recounts his life and history, interweaving his law career with his personal life and battles to overcome prejudice and the system he helped change.

When their mutual friend Paul starts a band, Ben Barnes keeps his brother (Robert Sheehan) from joining and starts a band of his own in Killing Bono. When Paul (Marin McCann) changes his name to Bono can calls the band U2, there's only one way for Ben to make it up to his brother: become even bigger than Bono's band... but while U2 gets more and more famous, the brothers are living a comedy of errors: missed gigs, bad deals, and lousy investments always seem to be between them and even the smallest taste of success.

Teenage Bilal works at his uncle's Detroit taxi stand in Bilal's Stand, where no one supports his dreams of leaving the ghetto and going to school. When he receives an acceptance letter from the University of Michigan, he's determined to raise the money to attend, but he also has to overcome the pressures of his family and community who try to keep Bilal in the only life they've ever known.

Once built up as "Palm Springs by the Sea," the ghost town that is Bombay Beach is explored in the film that won Best Documentary at the Tribecca Film Festival. Though the town was a popular tourist destination and celebrity magnet in the 1950s, the location has become desolate and mostly abandoned. Comparing the lives of several remaining residents, the film explores the mostly neglected area and the people that make it their home.

Robert and Richard Sherman, the brothers who penned some of the most memorable tunes in the Disney songbook, are the subject of the documentary The Boys: The Sherman Brothers Story. Though the brothers were successful, most famously writing many of the songs in Mary Poppins, their personal stories are more complicated than their public appearances at Disney functions let on.

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Dramas

Centered around a young orphan named Pedro, Mysteries of Lisbon is a wide-reaching and long-running drama that connects the teenage orphan to a story that spans more than fifty years and reaches from Portugal to South America to Italy. Spanning wars, corruption and intrigue, the Pedro's life branches to the priest who runs the orphanage and his own estranged family, spanning stories from aristocrats to pirates, where every character's full biography is a side note in another's.

Afraid of being arrested for smoking marijuana, Seong-Nam flees Seoul for Paris in the Korean Night and Day. Without knowing a word of French, he finds himself in the company of more Koreans living abroad, some who knew him back home. Trying to live quietly in a strange land, Seong-Nam's day-to-day life is colored by the tensions and attractions of his new group of peers.


A middle-aged railway pointsman finds a briefcase full of money in The Man from London. Though he lives in a decrepit shack with his daughter and high-strung wife (Tilda Swinton), he tells no one about the money... and the day after he finds the case, an inspector from London arrives in town. Could one of his neighbors have seen him take the money, and what will he have to do to keep his secret?

From the studio that produced Fireproof, Courageous is a Christian drama about the police officers in a small Georgia town. Seeing troubles in all of their lives, they create a resolution to live their lives to the highest possible standard, becoming the kind of people they want to be, and encouraging others to do the same.

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New this week in our TV New Releases:

Merlin Series3

Merlin's adventures continue as he guides young Arthur, destined to be king, in a dangerous land of magic and treachery.

Week of January 10th

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A New Angle

With a script by Oscar Winner Aaron Sorkin, Moneyball stars Brad Pitt as Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland Athletics. Since his team has roughly 1/3 the budget of better financed teams, Beane is losing his star players to baseball clubs who can pay them more, and his scouts are focused on finding their next superstar player. Beane has a different approach-- he hires a Yale grad (Jonah Hill) with an economics degree who looks into players statistics and finds game-winning players that other scouts ignore. Fighting the new plan every step of the way, the team's manager (Philip Seymour Hoffman) thinks Billy's lost his mind and refuses to apply the new strategies, but, over time, Billy Beane's unconventional approach to baseball has become the stuff of legend. With Chris Pratt, Stephen Bishop, and Robin Wright. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Vera Farmiga directs and stars in Higher Ground, playing Corinne Briggs, a young woman drawn into an evangelical Christian community. From her rebellious childhood, Corinne finds herself with a husband (Joshua Leonard) and a baby at 18, seeking a life apart from her own troubled parents (Donna Murphy and John Hawkes). She's drawn to Christianity, and finds a new community that spans from her open minded best friend (Dagmara Dominczyk) to their restrictive and controlling pastor (Norbert Leo Butz), but Corinne is still searching for her own beliefs and spirituality. With Nina Arianda. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

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Battlegrounds

Though he swore to leave his soldier of fortune life behind, Danny (Jason Statham) is drawn back in for one more mission in Killer Elite. When his friend and mentor, Hunter (Robert De Niro), is captured, Danny is forced to obey the kidnappers to save his friend. His mission: hunt down retired special forces soldiers responsible for the deaths of a sheik's sons. Danny reunites with his mercenary team (Dominic Purcell and Aden Young) to do the job, but a secret society is devoted to seeing Danny fail, and they dispatch an enforcer (Clive Owen) to stop him. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Jackie Chan's 100th movie is 1911 Revolution, set during the revolution against the imperial monarchy in China. Following the careers of Sun Yat Sen (Winston Chao), China's first president, and military commander Huang Xing (Chan) as they fight to overthrow the Quing dynasty (including Joan Chen). Their story unfolds as a historical drama decorated with enormous battle scenes and setpieces, dramatizing one of the great movements in the history of China. With Li Bingbing. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Robert Torres (Dougray Scott) is researching Josemaria Escriva (Charlie Cox), a man to be canonized as a saint, in Roland Joffe's There Be Dragons. Robert's investigation fleshes out Josemaria's story during the Spanish Civil war, and the connection between Josemaria and Manolo (Wes Bentley), Robert's estranged father. As the two men, friends since childhood, find different paths through the war, and Torres uncovers the secret that defined both the saint and his father. With Olga Kurylenko and Rodrigo Santoro. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

The third sequel of the spin-off to The Mummy franchise, The Scorpion King: Battle for Redemption finds Mathayus (Victor Webster), the Scorpion King, without a people, a land, or a throne. Hired by a king (Ron Perlman) to fight his brother and rival (Billy Zane), Mathayus is paired with an oafish brawler (Bostin Christopher) and sent out on an adventure. On their way, they chase treasure, fight ninjas, rescue a princess, and confront supernatural warriors, an epic quest that could restore Mathayus' heroic title of Scorpion King.

Detective Sean Riley (Johnny Strong) is on a dark path in Sinners and Saints, under investigation for questionable shootings in post-Katrina New Orleans. Riley, a man with nothing to lose, is partnered with idealistic family man Will Ganz (Kevin Phillips) to investigate a series of brutal murders... but their investigation takes them through the city's violent underbelly, to professional killers, and could include Riley's childhood friend (Sean Patrick Flanery). With Tom Berenger.

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Cristi Puiu's Aurora slowly develops Viorel's (Puiu) day to day life, quietly (and sometimes unsettlingly) moving through his native Romania. As events unfold and Viorel carefully enacts his plan, the movie becomes a mystery about mystery, and seeks to unravel not a crime but the ideas and questions behind the crime.

Dumped by her boyfriend and fired from her job, Ally (Anna Faris) is afraid of becoming undesirable in What's Your Number? Having been with 20 guys, she's convinced that no one will want a girl who's been with more than 20 people... so she starts hunting down her ex's to see if one of them could be Mr. Right. With the help of her one-night-stand devoted neighbor (Chris Evans), they find her past boyfriends: the awkward puppeteer (Andy Samberg), now engaged Chris Pratt, a presidential hopeful (Anthony Mackie), and an Englishman (Martin Freeman) she faked an accent for... but there's a reason these men in are in Ally's past. Even if she can reconnect with her hard-to-locate highschool prom date, now handsome and rich, is he really the right choice? With Ari Graynor. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

A live concert filmed in London, Adele: Live at the Royal Albert Hall records a performance by singer/songwriter Adele, along with behind-the-scenes footage and an accompanying audio recording of the show.

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New this week in our TV New Releases:

	Boardwalk Empire Season 1	When Prohibition begins in 1919, the opportunity for profit isn't lost on Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi), a crooked politician who has to out-maneuver bootleggers, gangsters, and the feds to keep control of Atlantic City.		Primeval Volume 3	A new field leader takes the helm as the team investigates and contends with time anomalies and the sci-fi fallout in our time, but new team members have new, private allegiances.
	The Penguins of Madagascar Operation Blowhole	Three episodes of the Penguins facing their arch enemy, Dr. Blowholde (Neil Patrick Harris), including the original episode that started it all.		An Idiot Abroad	Author Karl Pilkington travels to the seven wonders of the world, but his traveling companions (Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant) aren't making it easy for him

Week of January 3rd

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Spreading Disease

Similar to the ensemble cast-driven, multiple perspective take on a large issue that won him an oscar for Traffic, Steven Soderbergh's Contagion tracks a deadly pandemic as it sweeps the globe. With no single point of view, Contagion tells its story through the doctors (including Marion Cotillard, Lawrence Fishburne, Kate Winslet) trying to identify and cure the disease, a normal family (Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow) dealing with the infection, and the world's reaction to placebos, hoarding, mass hysteria, and hopes for a vaccine. With Jude Law. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Based on a true story, Puncture centers around personal injury lawyer Mike Weiss (Chris Evans) and his business partner Paul Danziger as they take the case of a former nurse (Vinessa Shaw) infected with AIDS by an accidental needle stick. Weiss tries to balance his full time drug addiction with a case that could spread safer syringes, shunned by most hospitals, throughout the medical community. Championing the inventor of the "safety point" syringe (Marshall Bell), Weiss takes on a system that endangers health professionals and the corporate lawyer (Brett Cullen) that defends the status quo. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

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Killers, Monsters, and The Deranged

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark
Now & Then

Eight-year-old Sally (Bailee Madison) goes to live with her father (Guy Pearce) and his new girlfriend, Kim (Katie Holmes), in Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. Moving into a 19th century mansion that her father is restoring, no one believes Sally when she says she hears voices. When they discover a blocked-off basement, the manor's caretaker (Jack Thompson) warns them to leave it alone... but the previously blocked basement only makes Sally's claims of voices and creepy, under-the-bed creatures stronger. Though no one believes the little girl, strange occurrences start to plague the household until they all have to accept that something is wrong. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Snakes on a Plane director David R. Ellis sends Sara (Sara Paxton) and her group of college friends (including Dustin Milligan and Joel David Moore) to her family's island vacation home on a private lake in Shark Night. Though they happen across Sara's ex (Chris Carmack) and his redneck buddy (Joshua Leonard), the real danger is in the lake: it's packed with a variety of sharks. With no signal on their cell phones, and no way to call for help or reach the local sheriff (Donal Logue), they're trapped and completely surrounded by dangerous predators.

Virginia (Felicia Day) is taking her fiance (Kavan Smith) home to meet her family in Red: Werewolf Hunter, but her family comes with a secret: they're werewolf hunters, and Virginia is the last living descendant of the original Red Riding Hood. Though the truce between her clan and the werewolves has stood for years, Gabriel (Steven McHattie), a wolf who can change without a full moon, has started a new war, and Virginia and her hunt-obsessed brother (Greg Bryk) are ready to fight back.

Cole (Mark Kelly) has been suffering hallucinations that cost him his high-power office job and his wife (Emma Caufield) in Removal. Cole is at the end of a long week of double shifts when an aggressive client (Oz Perkins) offers him $5,000 to do his house-- a three man job, at least-- in one night. Running low on his medication and still haunted by the murder/suicide of his friend (Billy Burke), Cole's grip on reality starts to slip throughout the course of the job, and he can't tell if there's actual danger in his client's eyes or if it's all just in his head.

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Crime Fighters

Sergeant Boyle (Brendan Gleeson) works a quiet beat in County Galway, Ireland in The Guard, and the slow pace allows Boyle to indulge in booze, drugs, and prostitutes without being bothered too much. When an unconventional murder occurs in his jurisdiction, Boyle's saddled with FBI Agent Everett (Don Cheadle)-- Boyle is constantly infuriating the American, but Everett starts to suspect that Boyle is the only one who can help him. With a psychotic trio (Liam Cunningham, David Wilmot, and Mark Strong) on the loose in the otherwise-quiet county, the only hope of closing the case is the unlikely team of Boyle and Everett. With Rory Keenan. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Sean Donovan is a troubled high school student, haunted by the traumas of his youth in Boy Wonder. As a boy, he had to deal with an abusive, alcoholic father (Bill Sage), who only quit drinking after his mother was murdered in a carjacking-gone-wrong. When a driven police officer (Zulay Henao) gets transferred into his neighborhood, she's curious about the boy who spends his nights at the precinct, staring at mugshots, hoping to find his mother's killer... but she also begins to draw connections between Sean and recent vigilante: someone has been fighting and executing violent men who got away with killing women.

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Comedy

Kate (Sarah Jessica Parker) has a lot on her hands in I Don't Know How She Does It. An executive by day and devoted wife and mother at night, she has the support of a good friend (Christina Hendricks) with a similar lifestyle to keep both lives on track. When her husband (Greg Kinnear) grabs a good job and Kate signs on for a new business deal-- one that will send Kate to New York regularly, and pairs her with a flirtatious associate (Pierce Brosnan)-- their already overbooked lives are spread even thinner. The comedy of desperation follows both sides of the marriage as they succeed in business, make it to the kids' afterschool activities, and still get dinner on the table. With Olivia Munn. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Recently departed stand-up comedian Patrice O'Neal's first full-length comedy special is Elephant in the Room, filmed at the New York Comedy Festival in February 2011.

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Family-Friendly

Middle-schooler Whitney (Sammi Hanratty) was a princess in Philadelphia, a high-society girl with all the right friends and every luxury she could hope for The Greening of Whitney Brown. When her father (Aidan Quinn) loses his job, Whitney's taken away from everything she know and has to live in her grandfather's (Kris Kristofferson) country home, where cell reception is spotty and wi-fi is nonexistent. Though her mother (Brooke Shields) adapts smoothly from power lunches to making jam, Whitney hates the country... until she finds Bob, her grandfather's horse, and learns to care about something other than herself.

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New this week in our TV New Releases:

	Mildred Pierce	Kate Winslet stars in the Golden Globe-nominated miniseries about a woman struggling during the Great Depression		Justified Season 2	Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) is still banished to Kentucky, but he's able to deal with the criminals in his home town better than any outside law enforcement.
	Fabric of the Cosmos	Professor and author Brian Greene explores the concepts of reality and spacetime, and how people in general perceive the world around them.		Royal Pains Season 3	Hank Larson continues to be a house-call "doctor for hire" among the privileged and isolated wealthy community in the Hamptons.