Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Week of June 26

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Life in Black and White

Michel Hazanavicius won a Directing Oscar with his Best Motion Picture of the Year Academy Award winner The Artist, the story of silent film star George Valentin (Best Actor Oscar winner Jean Dujardin). George is on top of the world-- not even his director (John Goodman) can stand up to him, even when he interferes with the firing of an extra named Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo). When talkies take over Hollywood, George has no interest in them; his studio is making talkies, and Peppy Miller is becoming a star that people can hear, but George sets off to make his own film. Using his own money to make the kind of silent film no one else will, George tries to keep silent movies alive and prove that he's more than just a relic from a bygone era. A silent film itself, The Artist tells the story of talkies and the end of the silent era with reverence to classic films and nonverbal storytelling. With James Cromwell. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Guy Maddin's surrealist ghost story Keyhole stars Jason Patric as Ulysses Pick, a gangster who returns to his home after a job. Though the men are worried that the cops will storm the house at any moment, they're stuck in an unpredictable state that, living within odd dream logic-- Ulysses' wife (Isabella Rossellini) is upstairs, with her naked father chained to the side of her bed. His son, whom Ulysses doesn't recognize, is one of his hostages. The house is haunted, possibly by ghosts, possibly by memories, and the hauntings dredge up Ulysses' past and lead him further from reality. With Udo Kier.

Exploding convention

The angry, constantly-yelling police captain (Ice Cube) tells nerdy Morton Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and not-too-bright Greg Jenko (Channing Tatum) that the department lacks creativity and has run out of ideas, so they're reviving an undercover project from the 80s in Phil Lord & Chris Miller's 21 Jump Street. They're sent to pose as high school seniors to find the source of a drug ring, but school has changed: once-popular jock Jenko is seen as a thug by modern students, while everything that made Schmidt a misfit when he was in school makes him popular and earns the trust of the kid who sells drugs in the school (Dave Franco). Luckily, they're both immature enough to blend in, and their ridiculous, over-the-top antics help them on their hunt for the supplier. With Rob Riggle. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Detective Amadeus Warnebring is the black sheep of a famous family of musicians in the Swedish Sound of Noise, but his familiarity with musicians makes him uniquely qualified for his new case: a group of drummers, led by an avant garde composer, are performing acts of musical terrorism. As hospitals, banks, and symphonies are attacked by the performance group, Warnebring is the only one who can track them... but, as someone who's whole life has been spent suffering through his family's classical music, he may not want the group's anti-music to stop.


"No one drinks unless L Dubba E says so. It's the end of days out there, JTRO. The darkness has come... drunks going straight edge right on the street. And now, with no drunks, there ain't no bums... and with no bums, there ain't [no one] to feed the ducks at the park. What's a town with no ducks, JTRO? It ain't nothin!"
When BTRO dies during a crucial Beat Beat Revelation match, his eye-patched younger brother JTRO (Jason Trost) has no choice but to fall to his knees and scream to the sky "Nooooooo! I'll never play Beat Beat Revelation again!" in The FP. After a year's absence, Frazier Park (The FP) has been overtaken by a rival gang, and JTRO has to challenge the gold-grilled, mohawked villain who killed his brother to one more Beat Off. It won't be easy, though, and he'll have to endure rigorous training montages if he wants to defeat the evil L Dubba E, restore order to the FP, and bring back the ducks.

Fantasy

10 years after defeating the Kraken, Perseus (Sam Worthington) is visited once again by his father, Zeus (Liam Neeson) in Wrath of the Titans. With the people of Greece ignoring their gods, Zeus' power is fading... and without power, there's nothing to keep the ultra-powerful Kronos, father of the gods, imprisoned. Joined by Queen Andromeda (Rosamund Pike) and another half-god (Toby Kebbell) like himself, Perseus quests to find the godlike weapons that could battle Kronos, but the group has to battle Minotaurs, Cyclopes, and Chimeras as they travel the countryside. Worse, Hades (Ralph Fiennes) and Ares (Edgar Ramirez) have turned against Zeus, and would rather see Kronos return than have their power vanish because of mortal men. On DVD, Blu-Ray, & 3DBlu.

Tarsem Singh's take on the Snow White fairytale, Mirror Mirror sees Snow White (Lily Collins) in the care of her evil stepmother (Julia Roberts) after the king (Sean Bean) rode into the forest and never came back. The queen does what she can to keep the kingdom: she sends her servant to take Snow White into the forest and kill her, but Snow doesn't die. Instead, she meets the Seven Dwarves, all banished because the queen thought they were ugly, who live as highwaymen, robbing the royalty that passes through the forest. Together, they teach Snow White to fight, to stand up against the queen, and win the heart of the handsome prince (Armie Hammer) that has fallen under the queen's spell. With Michael Lerner. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Family

Jack (Eddie Murphy) lives by his mouth in A Thousand Words: as an agent, his ability to talk and stretch the truth is what closes deals. Trying to con a guru (Cliff Curtis) publishing a self help book, Jack gets more than he bargained for: the guru sees through his lies, and the Boddhi Tree magically appears in Jack's back yard. Whatever happens to the Boddhi Tree happens to Jack, and the tree loses one of its 1,000 leaves for every word out of Jack's mouth; when the tree loses all of its leaves, it will die... and so will Jack. Robbed of his fast-talking skills, Jack has to choose his words carefully, and it complicates his relationship with his job and his wife (Kerry Washington), but the tree also inspires him to be truthful and take care of the important people in his life. With Clark Duke. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Based on a true story, social worker Margaret Humphreys (Emily Watson) is approached by a woman who was raised in an English orphanage while her younger brother was sent somewhere else in Oranges & Sunshine. When Margaret reunites her with her brother (Hugo Weaving), she discovers that he was just one of thousands of orphans that were sent to Australia to work as laborers. Based on a true story, the film chronicles Margaret's fight to reunite families and uncover the truth of what happened to the children. With David Wenham.

11-year-old Paloma plans to kill herself on her 12th birthday in the French The Hedgehog. Paloma is a bright girl, but she's frustrated by her parents' mediocrity and her "fishbowl" life in upper-class Paris. Working to complete a film on her camcorder, documenting the absurdity of her life before her time is up, she begins to learn a little about life and compassion from some of her building's adult residents (including Togo Igawa).
Eileen (Kathleen Turner) is nominated for "Catholic Woman of the Year" in The Perfect Family, but, though she's obsessed with doing good works, she can't really see the family around her. Eileen's daughter (Emily Deschanel) is five months pregnant and living with a woman who is more than just her roommate, her son (Jason Ritter) has just left his wife for another woman, and her husband (Michael McGrady) is a recovering alcoholic and womanizer. Eileen sees the trouble in her family as a reflection of her failings, but if she can win Catholic Woman of the Year, the local archbishop (Richard Chamberlain) will personally absolve her. With Elizabeth Pena.

Rom-Coms

James (David Tennant) is about to marry America's biggest movie star, Lara Tyler (Alice Eve), in The Decoy Bride. Lara is always being chased by paparazzi (Federico Castelluccio), so they keep their wedding a secret on the tiny Scottish island of Hegg. When the press finds them, Lara's publicist (Michael Urie) has James conduct the ceremony with Katie (Kelly Macdonald), a local girl, to throw off the photographers. With Lara missing and James and Katie hiding from photographers, the would-be groom and the local Scottish girl are shocked to discover that they've just gotten married for real.

Not yet 40, Tom (Bruce Greenwood) has been divorced three times and currently hosts a late night radio talk show about loneliness in The Republic of Love. Tom's all but sworn off women when he meets Fay (Emilia Fox), a mermaid researcher who's also given up on romance, and they immediately fall in love. Though their affair begins with fireworks, both Tom and Fay have their own dysfunctions, and they have to overcome the fears and unrealistic expectations that destroyed their last relationships.

Crime

Belgian Best Foreign Film Oscar Nominee Bullhead is set within the cattle industry and the illegal hormones used on livestock. Bullish cattle rancher Jacky is opposed to a shady deal offered by a local meat tycoon, but the tycoon, under investigation for murder, is not a man that takes "no" for an answer. Jacky is caught in a dangerous position, one that both forces him to make hard decisions and illuminates his past, and the reasons he's chosen to become such a bulky, imposing figure.

New this week in our TV New Releases:
Wallander
Swedish
Before it was adapted into a British show, the original Swedish series set the troubled Detective Wallander against a variety of mysteries in his native country
Damages
Season 4
After the events of season 3, Ellen (Rose Byrne) is working for a stable law firm, safer but less exciting than Hewes & Associates. When she suspects a US security firm of foul play, she once again turns to Patty (Glenn Close) and involves herself in a dangerous investigation.

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