Excelsior!
Four of Marvel Comics' legendary heroes are united in one film in Joss Whedon's The Avengers when Loki (Tom Hiddleston)
arrives on Earth prepared to conquer the planet. Anticipating threats from super-powered aggressors,
Nick Fury
(Samuel L. Jackson), the director of SHIELD,
activates the Avengers Initiative, collecting weapons genius Tony Stark
(Robert Downey Jr)
and his Iron Man armor,
super soldier Captain America
(Chris Evans),
Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), who transforms
into the unstoppable Hulk when he's angry, and Thor (Chris Hemsworth),
who's tracking Loki, his brother,
for personal reasons.
They may be the planet's greatest heroes, but that doesn't mean
they like each other or know how to work as a team. Together with
SHIELD agents
(Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner),
the Avengers will have to put aside their differences and combine their
talents to stop the greatest menace the world has ever faced. On DVD, Blu-Ray, & 3DBlu.Adapted from the critically acclaimed graphic novel, the animated Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (Part 1) is set in a future where Bruce Wayne (Peter Weller) has hung up his cape and cowl and lumbered into middle age. His retirement can't suppress his nature, and the escalating crime rate in Gotham drives him to become the Batman once again and remind the city of a time when criminals were afraid of the dark. On DVD and Blu Ray.
Deranged
When the mines closed in the Washington town of Cold Rock, the community was devastated in Pascal Laugier's The Tall Man. The schools have closed, there's no work, and little hope in what townspeople remain... and worse, children are disappearing. The local nurse (Jessica Biel), Cold Rock's last remaining medical professional, is pulled into the disappearances and the legend of "the tall man" that abducts children when the threat comes to her door. The investigator (Stephen McHattie) working on the disappearances can't help her, and she's quickly thrown into the middle of a dangerous situation where the lines between friends and enemies, right and wrong, are constantly shifting. On DVD and Blu Ray.
Rumors
of bio-organic weapons compel an American agent to sneak into a shady
Eastern European operation in the computer animated Resident Evil: Damnation.
Originally tasked with preventing the use of biological weapons in the
country's civil war, he discovers something much more dangerous: people
being mutated into Resident Evil monsters and a zombie plague that could sweep across Europe and, eventually the world. On DVD and Blu Ray.George (Rupert Evans), Max (Kenny Doughty), and Ricky work in the kitchen of a maximum security institution in Asylum Blackout. They don't have any real contact with the inmates, pushing pills and food on trays through a slot in a shatterproof window, though one of the patients (Richard Brake) stares a little too intently at George. When the power goes out, the automatic doors malfunction, and the criminally insane population of the asylum are suddenly running free. The three friends stay with the head guard (Dave Legeno) and try to hide until the police arrive, but they're in the middle of a madhouse that won't make the next few hours easy.
Playwrite Martine (Winona Ryder) has brought in Tyrone (James Franco) as her production's new leading man in The Letter, but Tyrone is strange and unpredictable, fascinated by Martine but hostile to everyone else involved in the play. As they move through the production, Martine begins to experience hallucinations and can no longer tell the real world from the fiction in her writings. As her world seems more threatening and eerie, she can't be sure if Tyrone is part of a plot against her, or if she is simply losing her grip on reality.
Subtitles
Idrissa, a young African refugee, is taken in by Marcel, a shoeshine man in a French city, in Le Havre, but the authorities want nothing but to deport the boy. Set as a kind of fairy tale, the movie pits Marcel and his close knit community against the harsher realities of the modern world. While the modern world has force, laws, and processes, Marcel and Idrissa have hope, optimism, love, and kindness.
Rita, a talented singer, and Chico, a jazz pianist, are a passionate couple in 1940s Cuba in the Oscar-nominated animated film Chico & Rita.
As the political upheavals of Castro make their world unstable, Rita
feels the pull of Hollywood and Chico can gain fame in the jazz clubs on
New York City, but the pair continue to cross paths as time passes. A
musical world rendered in lush, colorful textures, the film follows the
performers lives as they struggle to make the most of what they have.Maiquel loses a bet with friends and has to dye his hair blonde in the Portuguese Man of the Year, and that single superficial change alters his whole life. First it gives him the confidence to ask out his hairdresser, a date that puts him in the path of a small-time criminal (Wagner Moura). Maiquel buys a rifle to defend himself, but his new path makes him a legend idolized by the neighborhood, the police, and organized crime; suddenly, he's surrounded by notoriety and violence.
Comedies
Violet (Greta Gerwig) is the leader of an important social circle in the ivy league Seven Oaks school in Whit Stillman's Damsels in Distress. A self-made woman, she and her friends (including Megalyn Echikunwoke) recruit a naive newcomer (Analeigh Tipton) into the group, but Violet doesn't yet understand that she can't control everything. Friendships change, people can be unpredictable, and the comings and goings of the men in their lives only complicate things further. On DVD and Blu Ray.Frank's girlfriend doesn't believe he's capable of being a father in the controversial, button-pushing Danish comedy Klown. Frank's solution: to "kidnap" his 12-year-old nephew and take him out, proving that he's good with kids. Not only is Frank's plan flawed, the execution begins with a canoe trip they can barely handle and heads towards a music festival and conveniently placed brothel, and Frank doesn't really understand the word "inappropriate." On DVD and Blu Ray.
Cons
Released after a 25-year prison stretch, former confidence man Foley (Samuel L. Jackson) is ready to start his new life in The Samaritan, but his former partner's son (Luke Kirby)
has other ideas-- he wants to rope Foley into a new con. Foley doesn't
want to return to his old life, but he's caught in a shifting game of
cat and mouse that may never end until his new, unsteady partnership
grifts a ruthless criminal (Tom Wilkinson) for eight million dollars. On DVD and Blu Ray.
The documentary Happy travels the world to find people who have found happiness in their lives. Often found in the humblest of locations, the documentary films a Danish co-op, tribesmen in Namibia, a former banker working in one of Mother Theresa's charity wards, a family of Cajun crab-fishers in Louisiana, and many others, to ask them how they found the secret to being happy.
Ace's grandfather sends him a dog from Transylvania in Vampire Dog, and it doesn't take long for him to discover that Fang (Norm MacDonald) is no ordinary pet: he can talk, and he can only go out at night. With the magic at his disposal, Fang can help Ace with his woes as the new kid in school, and his self-confidence, as well. With Amy Matysio.
New this week in our TV New Releases:
 |
American Horror Story Season 1 |
A family moves into a mansion in Los Angeles, but their new home is haunted by the gothic mansion's previous owners. |  |
Key & Peele Season 1 |
The sketch comedy show Key & Peele is created by Mad TV veterans Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peel. |
 |
Desperate Housewives Season 8 |
The story of the ladies of Wisteria Lane comes to a close as they cover up the murder of Gabrielle's stepfather. |  |
Gossip Girl Season 5 |
Serena, Blair, and the rest of the high-society socialites drift between New York and Hollywood and continue to navigate their tempestuous social scene. |
 |
Wallander Series 3 |
Inspector Kurt Wallander investigates three feature-length mysteries in the BAFTA award winning BBC series. |
Charming, Sweet, and Light
and in a way, it is, but not only are they stuck in a traditional horror movie set up, they're being monitored by technicians (
and her replacement has his work cut out for him in the Oscar-nominated 
Kids
Fairy Tales
Like last month's 
Imminent Danger
Comedies
The
movie also looks at the evolution of Comic-Con, its widening scope, and
features interviews with many of the proudly nerdy celebrities that
love the event. 
Luke (
Swarms of (funny) monsters
