Week of April 24th

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Mob Ties

Former smuggler Chris (Mark Wahlberg) is living a respectable life, using his knowledge of crime to work as a security consultant in Contraband. When his wife's (Kate Beckinsale) brother (Caleb Landry Jones) has a smuggling deal go wrong, Chris has to fix the situation with a vicious mobster (Giovanni Ribisi) and make money the only way he knows how: he returns to a life of crime. Getting on board his father's (William Lucking) shipping operation, he re-teams with an old smuggling partner (Lukas Haas)... but he has to navigate a dangerous underworld of crime bosses and counterfeiters while staying one step ahead of the authorities, reluctantly making one last score to save his family. With J.K. Simmons and Diego Luna. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Pocky, a gangster in 1920s China, accidentally becomes the governor of Goose Town in the action/comedy Let the Bullets Fly, and he intends to use his new position to grift some easy money. The town is incredibly corrupt, and the mobster (Chow Yun Fat) who dominates Goose Town from his guarded fortress demands half the city's tax money-- Soon Pocky is at war, no longer worried about a quick money grab, but dedicated to destroy his rival. With Ge You.

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Tense

After losing their daughter and all of their worldly possessions in a fire, Dr. John Weiland and his wife Charlotte (Juliet Landau) rent a large house in the countryside in The Yellow Wallpaper, inspired by the classic novel. Grieving for her daughter, Charlotte spends more and more time in the secluded, yellow-wallpapered attic, withdrawing from her husband and sister (Dale Dickey). In solitude, Charlotte becomes convinced her little girl is in the house.

Claire (Sara Paxton) and Luke (Pat Healy) are the skeleton crew, manning the front desk of an old, empty, and soon-to-be shut down hotel in Ti West's The Innkeepers, and they spend their time before the hotel's closing investigating the stories of ghosts and hauntings that surround the creepy old building. With a microphone cued to record EVP phenomena, the pair do their own amateur "ghost hunting," trading shifts until the hotel's demise. At first, nothing happens... but the longer they wait... With Kelly McGillis.

Haunted by dreams that predict his demise on November 11, 2011, author Joseph Crone has lost all faith in 11-11-11. When his wheelchair-bound brother (Michael Landes) summons him to visit their dying father in Spain, Joseph's questions about faith, God, and his premonitions about 11/11/11 are amplified by supernatural occurrences that could be the first signs of demonic activity. With Wendy Glenn.

Once famous for swimming with great white sharks, Kate (Halle Berry) stopped swimming with sharks after a tragic shark attack killed her mentor in Dark Tide. When an old flame (Oliver Martinez), her former partner, finds her giving wildlife tours, he encourages her to get back in the water and face her fears, and a wealthy Englishman (Ralph Brown) who wants to hire Kate to take his family swimming with sharks gives her the opportunity. Back in the water with great white sharks, her new crew pushes further and further, into the kind of circumstances that traumatized her. On DVD and Blu Ray.

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Drama

Based on the 1973 PBS documentary that first placed cameras into middle-American life, Cinema Verite dramatizes the story of the Loud family as their lives change under the observation of film crews. When Craig Gilbert (James Gandolfini) offers them his vision, Bill and Pat Loud (Tim Robbins and Diane Lane) agree to be part of Craig's cutting-edge television experiment, but as the Louds and their son (Thomas Dekker) have their lives laid bare in broadcast, family tensions are compounded by being watched. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Teenage dropout Emilia (Jessica Brown Findlay) gets a job working at a seaside hotel in Albatross, forming a relationship with the family that owns the building. THe hotel is owned by Johnathan (Sebastian Koch), who spends all his time in the attic working on the follow-up to his successful first novel, a follow-up he's been struggling with for twenty years. His dissatisfied wife Joa (Julia Ormond) is left running the hotel, and their teenage daughter Beth (Felicity Jones) is roughly Emilia's age. When Emilia enters their lives, subtle shifts begin, as their new hire helps them see where they're headed, and what they want.

17-year-old Alike is a good student who lives with her parents (Kim Wayans and Charles Parnell) in Brooklyn in Pariah, and she is slowly beginning to embrace her identity as a lesbian. Encouraged by her out-and-proud best friend, Alike is still trying to find herself amongst her parents' strained marriage, her friends, and the people who respond to her sexuality. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Middle-east veteran Kelli (Linda Cardellini) comes home hoping to resume her life as she left it in Return, but the world has moved on without her. Her husband (Michael Shannon) has been unfaithful, her factory job can't hold her attention, and she's unable to emotionally support her children. She meets a charming veteran (John Slattery) in court-appointed therapy, but as her world slowly crumbles, so does Kelli, and she works to reestablish some kind of normal life after the toll of her deployment. With Talia Balsam.

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Comedy

Comedian Patton Oswalt's new live stand-up comedy performance is Finest Hour, recorded live at the Moore Theater in Seattle.

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New this week in our TV New Releases:

	Titanic Miniseries	From the creators of Downton Abbey, the rich, ensemble, period drama set aboard one of history's most notorious ships. On DVD and Blu Ray.
	The Guild Seasons 4 & 5	Two seasons worth of the continuing misadventures of an online fantasy role playing guild, and the ways their real lives compete with their fictional lives		Great Expectations Miniseries	The BBC miniseries adaptation of Charles Dickens rags-to-riches classic, with Gillian Anderson.

Week of April 17th

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Impossible Action

An incident in Russia nearly starts a war in Brad Bird's Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol, and the blame falls on Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise). To avert a crisis, the President initiates Ghost Protocol: the government denies the existence of Hunt and his team. Now Ethan, his technical field agent Benji (Simon Pegg), Jane Carter (Paula Patton), and a former agent (Jeremy Renner) thrown in with the disgraced group have to find the real culprits and prove their innocence. On their own and without any support from the government that abandoned them, the team has to travel the globe, from high-paced action setpiece to the next, to outmaneuver their enemies and set the world right. With Michael Nyqvist. On DVD and Blu Ray.

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Non Fiction

Narrated by Morgan Freeman, the IMAX documentary Born To Be Wild is the story of people who run sanctuaries and the animals they care for: one for elephants in Kenya and another for orangutans in Borneo. For decades, both shelters have taken in babies orphaned by hunters, and the film follows the day-to-day operations of the shelters as they raise, care for, and eventually release the animals back into the wild.

Once a household name, Paul Goodman Changed My Life shines a spotlight on Paul Goodman: a poet, teacher, social critic, and guru who went from being a widely known speaker and author in the 1960s and 70s to a relative unknown. Revisiting his life and work nearly 40 years after his death, the film uses his contemporaries, critics, friends, and family to illustrate what made Goodman such a well known figure in his time.

Exploring the frozen regions of the world in lush, Planet Earth-style, the seven part Frozen Planet series explores the lives of the creatures that live in some of the planet's most hostile environments. The documentary filmmakers brave harsh environments to film the mostly unseen lives of polar bears, emperor penguins, orcas, and more, bringing cameras into the midst of lives and natural events that are almost never observed. Narrated by David Attenborough. On DVD and Blu Ray.

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Smaller Titles

Successful businessman Brandon (Michael Fassbender) harbors a dark secret in Steve McQueen's Shame: he's a sex addict. When his sister (Carey Mulligan) makes an unexpected visit, Brandon can't hide all of his compulsions... but both siblings are damaged, and while she stays with him, their private dysfunctions become apparent, and they both have to cope with the kind of people they've become.

Sorban (Jeremie Renier), a young peasant winemaker, struggles to make the perfect wine in Niki Caro's 19th century drama A Heavenly Vintage. His work is influenced by the baroness (Vera Farmiga) who wants to seduce him, his beautiful but troubled wife (Keisha Castle-Hughes), and the angel (Gaspard Ulliel) who guides his work. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Only eight people make it into their building's bomb shelter after a series of nuclear explosions destroy New York in The Divide. Eva (Lauren German) and her boyfriend, brothers Josh (Milo Ventimiglia) and Adrian (Ashton Holmes) and their friend, a mother (Rosanna Arquette) and her daughter, and Courtney B. Vance make it to the shelter before the building superintendent (Michael Biehn) locks the door... but, now trapped together, they must come to terms with the power struggle in their new community and survive each other.

A mysterious box with the words "The meaning of life: For Jeremy Fink to open on his 13th birthday" arrives in Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, a gift from his departed father. Jeremy and his friend, Lizzy, do everything they can to open the locked box, but, as they keep getting themselves into trouble, Jeremy and Lizzy get a real lesson in the meaning of life as they make good on all the mischief they caused.

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New this week in our TV New Releases:

Treme Season 2

From the creators of The Wire, HBO's post-Katrina New Orleans ensemble drama enters its second season, weaving together the lives of the musicians, writers, cooks, and the personalities that give the city its personality.

Week of April 10th

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Oscar Winners

Meryl Streep won her third Academy Award for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. As an elderly woman, Britain's longest-serving Prime Minister is haunted by the memory of her husband (Jim Broadbent) as they reflect on her young life during WWII, their meeting, and her rise in politics. Informed by her father's (Iain Glen) roles as both the Mayor of their town and a shopkeeper, Thatcher recalls her career through the British 1980s of IRA bombings, labor strikes, and economic crisis, and the unflinching conservatism that guided her life. With Olivia Colman and Anthony Head. On DVD and Blu Ray.

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I am a guest of your country, I do not have voting rights. I have a different historical background, and I'm speaking of the Nazi [era] with the genocide and euthanasia and everything. And I would be the last one in the position to tell the American people how to handle criminal justice. So that's why I say, "I have a different opinion, and I respectfully disagree with the practice."

--Werner Herzog

Recording Reality

Director Werner Herzog's documentary Into the Abyss centers on interviews with Michael Perry filmed eight days before his death sentence was carried out. The film explores the triple homicide for which Perry was sentenced, and interviews his accomplice (in jail with a life sentence), his father (also in jail), officers on the scene, victims' families, and the professionals that carry out the death sentence. Through the story, Herzog is able to delve deeper into his recurring themes of mortality, time, imprisonment, and what it means to be human. On DVD and Blu Ray.

The story of how puppeteer Kevin Clash grew from making his own puppets at home as child to defining one of Sesame Street's most beloved characters, Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey is an upbeat documentary about someone who fully realized his dream. Influenced by Sesame Street as a child, Clash made his own puppets and put on his own shows, and eventually joined Jim Henson's team, defining a character that became an icon among younger children.

Miss Representation is a documentary about the representation of women in the mainstream media. Exploring the popular media representation of women with unattainable standards of beauty, the film offers insights into the effect these messages have on girls as they grow up. Through interviews with powerful and successful women as well as junior high and high school girls, the movie maps the real-world impact of women on screen and in print.

Stand Up

Donald Glover's stand-up comedy performance in Donald Glover: Weirdo, recorded at the Union Square Theatre in New York, is his debut comedy DVD, with the live comedy show, interviews, and a walking tour of NYC.

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Spectacle

Two American businessmen (Emile Hirsch and Max Minghella) are in a night club in Russia when aliens attack in The Darkest Hour. Trapped with the business partner that betrayed them (Joel Kinnaman) and the girls they met at the club (Olivia Thirby and Rachel Taylor), they have to survive a barren, foreign cityscape laid to waste by monsters that are nearly invisible: they're just arcs of electricity that turn everyone they touch to dust. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Dorothy gets an offer from a New York publishing house for her children's stories in The Witches of Oz, but her book deal turns out to be a ruse by people who know the truth: her stories, and Oz, are all real. Suddenly, Dorothy is face to face with Nome Kings and witches (both wicked and good), and the magic of Oz is poised to take over first New York... and then the world. With Mia Sara and Billy Boyd.

Robert Miller (Toby Kebbell) returns home to South London in The Veteran. Suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder from his time in Afghanistan and unable to get a job, Miller's wary of an old friend's (Tom Brooke) offer to make the most of his training. Suddenly, he's dodging tails and shooting reconnaissance photos for a pair of agents (Tony Curran and Brian Cox) trying to stop a terrorist cell aiming for civilian targets... but the war zone in London can be as dangerous as the one he just left when Miller doesn't know who he can trust.

Zoe on New to Reckless

Here at Reckless one of our top priorities is to keep a "library feel" to our stock. We will always bring in New Releases, but we want to make sure that the movies you need for classes, nostalgia and other times are here too. That means we will be bringing in New OLDER movies. This week is especially wonderful with the addition of many older movies that have been lacking from our library.

• Against All Odds (1984) (Jeff Bridges Thriller)
• Battle Royale ( 2000)  Blu-ray (Released to coincide with the Hunger Games)
• Beau Geste (1939) (Gary Cooper joins the foreign legend)
• Being Human (1994) (Robin Williams looks for the meaning of life over 4 centuries)
• Death Takes a Holiday (1934) (The original version of Meet Joe Black)
• The Deer Hunter (1978)    Blu-ray (Robert DiNiro, Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep)
• The Enchanted Cottage (1945) (Robert Young and Dorothy McGuire fall in love in a magical cottage)
• Garbo Talks (1984) (Anne Bancroft and Ron Silver, a mother's dying wish to meet Garbo)
• The Great Waldo Pepper (1975) (Robert Redford is a WWI biplane pilot)
• The Hanging Garden (1997) (A once obese teen returns home after 10 years)
• Housekeeping (1987) ( Christine Lahti in 1950's Pacific NW)
• Lady and the Tramp (1955) Blu-ray (Disney dogs on Blu-Ray)
• Leaving Normal (1992) (Christine Lahti and Meg Tilly travel to Alaska)
• The Legend of Billie Jean (1985) (Helen and Christian Slater outlaws, martyrs, good times)
• Letter Never Sent (1960) Blu-Ray Criterion (Diamond searchers in Siberia)
• The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) (The Orson Welles drama)
• The Next Voice You Hear (1950) (James Whitmore, God is heard on the radio)
• Saving Grace (1986) (Tom Conti is the Pope who runs away)
• World on a Wire (1973) (Crime, Sci Fi and Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

Week of April 3rd

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Animal Relations

Young Albert watches the birth and growth of Joey, a thoroughbred horse, and the two become lifelong friends in Steven Spielberg's War Horse. Though they bought Joey to help on the farm, Albert's mother and father (Emily Watson & Peter Mullan) have to sell Joey to make ends meet-- Joey's to serve as an officer's (Tom Hiddleston) mount in Europe during the First World War. This begins Joey's journey, beginning with British officers, being found by a young French girl and her grandfather (Niels Arestrup), and serving as a beast of burden for the Germans, but miraculously surviving a war that destroys everything around it and touching lives throughout Europe. As years pass and Albert joins the fight, the odds seem impossible that he could reunite with his beloved horse... With Eddie Marsan and Benedict Cumberbatch. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Trying to put his life together after the loss of his wife, Benjamin's (Matt Damon) search for a new place to live inspires him to pick an unusual house in Cameron Crowe's We Bought a Zoo. His 7-year-old daughter, Rosie (Maggie Jones), loves being around the animals and his 14-year-old son, Dylan (Colin Ford), is upset about living in isolation, but Ben sees his new house (and the zoo that comes with it) as an opportunity. To keep their new home, they have to get the downtrodden zoo back on its feet with the help of the head zookeeper (Scarlett Johansson) and the carpenter (Angus Macfayden) who designed the animal's enclosures. Ben's family and the zoo's crew have to pull together and make their new life work before the zoo inspector (John Michael Higgins) shuts them down. With Elle Fanning. On DVD and Blu Ray.

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Documentary

The documentary Chasing Madoff recalls the ten years Harry Markopolis spent investigating the now-notorious Bernie Madoff. Beginning with Harry's investigations in 1999, continuing through his repeated attempts to inform the government and public media, and concluding with Madoff's 2008 confession to the FBI, Markopolis spent nearly a decade trying to alert the world of Madoff's18 billion dollar ponzi scheme.

Director Niko von Glasow, who suffered birth defects due to prenatal exposure to thalidomide, drew several of his peers into the documentary NoBody's Perfect. Making his film while setting up a nude calendar of fellow Thalidomiders, Glasow aimed to create a pre-emptive strike against stares, approaching their world with self assurance and wit.

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Indie

Bloodied after an outburst of violence, Joseph (Peter Mullan) ducks into a charity shop in Tyrannosaur, where Hannah (Olivia Coleman), the shop's owner, offers to pray for him. Joe has led a vicious life, and is prone to lashing out and destroying anyone and anything near him, but he forms a delicate relationship with Hannah, even though he doesn't know how to respond to kindness. Though Joe sees Hannah as a Christian living an ideal, ivory tower life, Hannah has her own intimate knowledge of violent men, something her husband (Eddie Marsan) will never let her forget.
An ensemble group of teenagers intermingle over the course of one night in The Myth of the American Sleepover, as the school's "new girl" hosts a sleepover while her parents are away, and a freshman orientation is set up for an overnight in the school's gym. As different members of the parties interweave, they make their connections, flirt, brag, and try to make their night something special.

Taking refuge in a cabin in the woods, an armed robber (Sara Paxton) fleeing from a convenience store robbery, a shrinking violet (Katherine Waterson) and expecting mother, and an average joe (Scott Eastwood) find themselves isolated from the outside world in Enter Nowhere. With no transportation and freezing weather outside, they have nowhere to go, but the biggest mystery is each other: who are they, and why have they been thrown together?

Pete (Edward Furlong) has locked himself in his Las Vegas hotel room to wait out the world's last 48 hours in This Is Not a Movie, kept company by a hedonistic, loudmouth version of himself on the couch and a long-haired, contemplative version of himself on an inset screen. As they try to work out their predicament, their desires, and the conspiracy that keeps them in check, they can only come to one conclusion: Pete needs to track down and confront The Man (Peter Coyote).

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New this week in our TV New Releases:

Torchwood Miracle Day

The fourth series of the science fiction adventure show follows Captain Jack and the Torchwood team as they try to understand why, suddenly, no one on Earth can die... solving the mystery of why it's happened, and dealing with the troubles and side-effects of widespread immortality.