Week of January 8

Website is best viewed at RecklessVideo.com.  Pop-up credits links are inactive on Blogger.

Trapped with the Bad Guys

Adapted from the long-running comic book, Dredd stars Karl Urban as the stalwart, uncompromising Judge Dredd. In the post-apocalyptic Mega City, where Judges uphold the law as judge, jury, and executioner, Dredd is evaluating Anderson (Olivia Thirlby), a rookie Judge on her first assignment. Unfortunately for her, Anderson's first suspect (Wood Harris) is tied to a ruthless gang run by Ma Ma (Lena Headey)... who'll do anything to keep a witness from being brought in by the Judges. When Ma Ma locks down the entire block, Dredd and Anderson have to fight their way through gang members, opportunists who want to win Ma Ma's favor, and even crooked Judges to clear the block. Locked in with no support, their only way out is to find every single one of the people gunning for them and leave no one un-judged. On DVD, Blu-Ray, & 3DBlu.

Charlie (Dax Shepard) is in the Witness Protection Program, living in a little town with his girlfriend Annie (Kristen Bell) in Hit & Run. When Annie lands an important interview in Los Angeles, Charlie throws caution to the wind and leaves town, blowing his cover and drawing lots of attention. Charlie just wants to make it to LA with Annie, but now he's being chased by her jealous ex-boyfriend (Michael Rosenbaum), the marshall (Tom Arnold) assigned to protect him, and the bank robber (Bradley Cooper) Charlie testified against. On DVD and Blu Ray.

John Smith (Christian Slater) finds himself playing poker with a table full of Elvis impersonators at an Apache casino in Guns, Girls, and Gambling, but he doesn't know about the Elvis' connection to a valuable, ancient mask. With the mask stolen and the prime Elvis (Gary Oldman) missing, anyone and everyone is shooting, questioning, and taking hostages to reclaim the mask... and they're all convinced John has the answers. Between corrupt cops, a devious rancher (Powers Boothe), a girl-next-door, an Edgar Allen Poe-quoting hitwoman (Helena Mattsson), the casino-running chief, and a slew of Elvis impersonators, no one is sure who has the mask, but they'll all betray one another to get it.

---

Reality

Set during the 2008 presidential elections, campaign strategist Steve Schmidt (Woody Harrelson) has to find a way to make John McCain's (Ed Harris) campaign as captivating as Barack Obama's in Game Change. His solution: a firebrand governer from Alaska named Sarah Palin (Julianne Moore). Though Palin's fantastic in front of a crowd, Schmidt and his team (including Peter MacNicol and Jamey Sheridan) are soon struggling with damage control-- they have a "game changing" personality on the ticket, great when she stays on script, but completely unprepared for a presidential race.

Based on a prank call scam that has dozens of reported incidents, Compliance is the story of Sandra (Ann Dowd), manager of a ChickWich, who receives a call informing her of a theft. Over the phone, Officer Daniels (Pat Healy) tells her that young register girl Becky (Dreama Walker) stole from a customer, and asks Sandra to take the suspect into a back room. Over the course of the phone call, Daniels instructs Sandra to question Becky and assist the police until he arrives on scene, beginning with a strip search, and unfolding like the Milgram Experiment as the situation progresses. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Shot on 70mm film over the course of five years, in twenty-five countries, Ron Fricke's sight-and-sound tone poem Samsara cascades images of mankind, nature, technology, and footage connecting many facets of life on the planet. On DVD and Blu Ray.

---

Seizing the Moment

Morris Bliss (Michael C. Hall) dreams of traveling the world in The Trouble with Bliss, but he's stuck at home doing next to nothing. He's gets all of his money from his father (Peter Fonda), is dating an 18-year-old (Brie Larson) who picked him up in a store, and his best friend (Chris Messina) is incredibly unreliable. His attractive, married neighbor (Lucy Liu) might be able to jar him out of his shabby, static life... her, or an old high-school buddy (Brad William Henke) who happens to be the father of the girl he's sleeping with.

Tessa (Dakota Fanning) is a British teenager with leukemia in Now Is Good, trying to live as full a life as she can before succumbing to her terminal cancer. While Tessa meets a boy and is determined to bring him along in her adventures, crossing items off her Bucket List, her parents (Olivia Williams and Paddy Considine) try to cope with what's happening to her.

Substitute teacher Henry (Adrien Brody) doesn't get involved in Detachment: assigned to a rough school, he doesn't respond to abuse or threats, and he keeps order in his classroom until he's sent to sub at the next school. Surrounded by faculty (including Marcia Gay Harden, Christina Hendricks, James Caan, and Lucy Liu), each with their own methods of dealing with the violent students, Henry does the best he can in a crumbling environment until a teenage runaway changes his perspective.

Scott (Brian Presley) is a farmer with a family who considers his life a failure in Touchback, and plans to have an "accident" so that his insurance can provide for his household. Reflecting on his past, Scott remembers his time as a football star with a bright future, the coach (Kurt Russell) that supported him, the woman (Melanie Lynskey) who would become his wife... a young man with his whole life ahead of him, until a crippling injury changed everything.

---

Bad Influence

Single mom Sarah (Elisabeth Shue) and her teenage daughter Elissa (Jennifer Lawrence) leave the big city for a small town, getting a great deal on a house in House at the End of the Street. They can afford the house because of the murders in the neighborhood, scandalizing the community... but while the rest of the town avoids Ryan (Max Thieriot), the only survivor of the rampage, Elissa finds him vulnerable and sweet. While Sarah doesn't want her daughter spending time with the boy from The Murder House, she also befriends the sheriff (Gil Bellows), the one person in town who stands up for Ryan. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Diane (Juno Temple) is a British girl on vacation in New York City taken by surprise by her attraction to tomboyish Jack (Riley Keough) in Jack & Diane. Their flaring passion takes physical, monstrous form, where the blush of new romance might actually see one of the girls with her heart ripped out... literally.

---

New this week in our TV New Releases:

	The Hour Series 2	1950s current affairs show The Hour needs some spark, so the head of news re-enlists reporter Freddie Lyon (Ben Wishaw), despite their past troubles.			Archer Season 3	Super-spy Sterling Archer is still conducting missions for ISIS, as long as it doesn't interfere with his ego, his love life, or his mother.
	Smash Season 1		A broadway songwriter begins working on a musical about the life of Marilyn Monroe, bringing in a powerful producer (Anjelica Huston) and creating a Broadway show from the ground up.		Red Dwarf Series X	Dave Lister may be the last human in the universe, but he's still more interested in beer, curry, and annoying Arnold Rimmer than cosmic matters, kept relatively sane by Kryten and the Cat.
	Episodes Season 2		Beverly and Sean's show has mutated into a hockey comedy called "Pucks!", but the show's success means they're stuck in LA with their vain star and their compromised show.		Enlightened Season 1	Amy Jellicoe (Laura Dern) emerges from rehab "spiritually awakened," but has to struggle to hold on to her new perspective as she returns to her high-powered life.
	An Idiot Abroad Series 2		Ricky Gervais forces his sheltered friend Karl out into the world, steeping him in exotic, unfamiliar cultures... whether he likes it or not.