Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Week of February 25th

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

Through Space

Dr. Ryan Stone's (Sandra Bullock) first mission in space applies her specific knowledge to the Hubble telescope in Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity. Assisted by veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney), she's nearly done with her work when they learn that they're directly in the path of debris hurling through space. Cut off from mission control, with their shuttle badly damaged, they have to find a way to survive their situation and make their way back to Earth. Their first and best hope is aboard the International Space Station, but with few supplies and no support, they have to overcome nearly impossible odds to return home. On DVD, Blu Ray, and 3D Blu.

Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the crown-prince of Asgard, has been putting his kingdom back in order in Thor: The Dark World. With his traitorous brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) in prison and his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) holding the throne, Thor is free to travel to other realms and secure peace. That peace is threatened when a Convergence threatens to link all realms, even Earth, where Dr. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) is investigating the strange occurrences the impending Convergence is causing. Though Jane is trying get on with her life after Thor left her behind, he returns to join her and save the Earth from the Dark Elves (Christopher Eccleston and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) that plan to use the Convergence to destroy every realm and darken the universe. Facing an enemy more dangerous than any they've faced before, Thor and Jane have to take allies wherever they can-- even if that means freeing and joining with Loki. On DVD, Blu Ray, and 3D Blu.

Art, Awards, and Prestige

High school student Adele is just beginning to figure out her life in the Cannes Film Festival Palm d'Or-winning Blue Is the Warmest Color. Her group of friends talk about nothing but boys and sex, and Adele accepts their advice to go out with the guy who's interested in her, but far from being satisfied with him, she walks away. The person who really caught her eye was blue-haired Emma (Lea Seydoux), the two begin a passionate relationship. Emma is an intellectual and an artist, and accepts Adele into her life, but Adele has to contend with her school friends turning their backs on her lesbianism and concern over what her parents (Aurelien Recoing) will think. As Adele and Emma's relationship develops, their time together reveals the passing of their initial, all-consuming attraction to the maintaining of a partnership, and what two people as different as studious Adele and artistic Emma truly have to offer one another. On DVD and Blu Ray.

David (Will Forte) is stuck managing his father, Woody's (Bruce Dern), obsession to claim a million dollar magazine sweepstakes in Alexander Payne's Nebraska. Though David, his brother Ross (Bob Odenkirk), and their mother Kate (June Squibb) see the prize as obviously false, Woody-- through drunken bouts and possible dementia-- insists on traveling from his Montana home to Lincoln, Nebraska to claim his winnings. On their way, David has to endure his combative father, but their journey shades Woody's history, as they visit his brother (Rance Howard), cross paths with his former business partner (Stacy Keach), and learns to see his odd and unpredictable dad in a new light. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Set around the Yugoslav Wars and the seige of Sarajevo, Italian student Gemma (Penelope Cruz) recalls the time she spent in the highened drama and tragedy of conflict in Twice Born. Returning to the site of her greatest love, Gemma recalls-- through a series of extended flashbacks-- her time amidst the artists and poets of the area as violence ran wild in the early 90s, and how she met dashing photographer Diego (Emile Hirsch). As their complicated relationship unfolds, Gemma's history reveals the woman she is now, and why she's returned to Sarajevo with her 16-year-old son. With Sergio Castellitto.

A documentary about a sleepy Alabama town that has become a destination for recording artists, Muscle Shoals spends time in the studios that have created legendary recordings by Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones, Etta James, and Bob Dylan, just to name a few. Muscle Shoals attracted musicians who quickly identified with the small town studio's sound: a mix of blues, mountain hillbilly, and spirituals that quickly defined itself as a distinct sonic personality. Collecting interviews with the artists who recorded there, record producer Rick Hall, and music historians, the film assembles the vast history of a studio that helped define the music of the 50s and 60s. On DVD and Blu Ray.

On the day of his 118th birthday, Nemo Nobody (Jared Leto), the last mortal man in a world of people who have conquered aging and death, tells the story of his life in Mr. Nobody. Nobody's story changes depending on which path he chooses to recall, from his being raised by his father (Rhys Ifans) or mother (Natasha Little) after their divorce, to the seperate loves of his life... or lives. As the parallel tracks of his lives continue to run, the events change whether he winds up with troubled Elise (Sarah Polley), sensible Jeanne (Linh Dan Pham) or passionate Anna (Diane Kruger), and how his different lives alter the course of the lives around him. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Perfectionist vintner Paul (Niels Arestrup) is obsessed with his vineyard's legacy in the French You Will Be My Son. Believing that his son has a better eye for ledgers than a nose for wine, Paul is reluctant to pass on the business that has been in his family for eleven generations, and begins to look for a more suitable heir. When he finds a young man that is everything his own son is not, Paul believes he can secure his family vineyard's future, but adding a new "son" highlights the troubles and truths that were always present in his world.


New this week in our TV New Releases:
Adventure Time
Season 3

I'm a buff baby that can dance like a man, I can shake-ah my fanny, I can shake-ah my can! I'm a tough tootin' baby, I can punch-ah yo' buns! Punch-ah yo' buns, I can punch all yo' buns! If you're an evil witch, I will punch you for fun!
Lego Animation
Clutch Powers
Hero Factory
Clutch Powers goes on Indiana Jones-style Lego adventures in the animated The Adventures of Clutch Powers, and robotic heroes are constructed to protect their world in their first two Hero Factory stories: Rise of the Rookies and Savage Planet.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Week of February 18th

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

Long-Form

After the Siege of Blackwater, Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance) takes charge of his grandson-king Joffrey and the kingdom, pushing aside Cersei (Lena Headey) and Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) in the third season of Game of Thrones, while his prodigal son (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) is in the hands of the Starks. Though Robb Stark is winning every battle against the Lannisters, his armies are troubled and his family is scattered: no one knows that Arya is alive, the Lannisters have Sansa, Jon has infiltrated the wildlings north of the wall, his younger brothers are assumed dead, and only his mother (Michelle Fairley) remains with him. As the Starks and Lannisters clash, Daenerys Targaryen and her dragons gather power and gain support to overtake everyone who would claim her family's throne. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Out of rehab and putting her life back together, Jackie (Edie Falco) is trying to keep connections to her daughters and estranged husband in season 5 of Nurse Jackie. She still keeps the hospital on its feet, letting Dr. O'hara (Eve Best) do her work, but her home life is a complicated web of meetings, divorce complications, and her new roommate Zoey (Merritt Wever).

Smaller Budgets

Rachel (Kathryn Hahn) lives a comfortable life in a nice neighborhood, but she's unhappy and detached from everything in Afternoon Delight. She doesn't pay enough attention to her little boy, and she constantly deflects her husband's (Josh Radnor) advances, but her visit to a strip club introduces her to McKenna (Juno Temple), a free-spitted "full-service sex worker." Rachel invites McKenna to live in their unused maid's room and work as a nanny, but Rachel's invitation to have a wild young woman live in her home is a symptom of all the problems her therapist (Jane Lynch) has been warning her about.


"You're in here for some gluttony,
pretty constant mas... um, just all
sorts of stuff, but nothing serious."
"I'm a woman and you're a
Catholic. Everything I do is a sin."
The Augustine Interfaith Order of Hellbound Saints serve a specific purpose in the service of God in Hellbenders-- to sin and be tainted enough to take on demons. Led by hedonistic Lutheran priest Angus (Clancy Brown), the black sheep of the religious community include Presbyterian anti-authoritarian alcoholic Larry (Clifton Collins Jr), Roman Catholic minor rule-breaker Stephen (Andre Royo), foul mouthed Unitarian Elizabeth (Robyn Rikoon), Southern Baptist deviant Macon (Macon Blair), and Polish Catholic pothead Erik (Dan Fogler), tarnished clergy sent in to perform exorcisms and do battle with the forces of evil. With the choosing of a new Pope, their order is on the verge of being shut down by a bureaucrat (Stephen Gevedon) just as a Scandinavian demon called Surtr is loosed on the world. With Surtr destroying every soul it touches and planning to wage war on God and all the angels in Heaven, the Hellbound Saints are the only ones who can stop him.

Constructed like an early 80s documentary, Computer Chess captures an annual convention where early computer programmers pit their chess programs against one another. Filmed with the kind of vintage, black and white video cameras that would have been used to record an event at the time, programming teams from companies, universities, and independent start-ups compete to prove whose chess-logic program is more effective, but one of the team's computers won't play against other programs... as if it just doesn't want to. With Wiley Wiggins.

Documentaries

City planners discuss the changing nature of the world's urban areas in The Human Scale. As the world develops and cities grow, along with citizens buying more cars, the flow of automotive, bicycle, and foot traffic changes, and cities like New York or Beijing have to adapt the way their citizens move through them and their growing number of inhabitants.

Spending time in three different restaurants, the documentary Spinning Plates explores what it takes to keep a restaurant in business in the world today. Focusing on a 150-year-old country diner in Iowa, a roadside Mexican restaurant in Arizona, and a high class Chicago restaurant with a 3-star Michelin rating, the film explores different styles of cooking, business, and dining, that informs the life of each eatery.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Week of February 11th

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

A Fight for Survival

Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield) is recruited into a military academy by Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford) to join Earth's elite force to fight alien enemies in the science fiction Ender's Game. Succeeding in the academy where his older brother and sister (Jimmy Pinchak and Abigail Breslin) couldn't, the school's administration (including Viola Davis and Ben Kingsley) sees Ender as a natural leader, and the best hope for Earth's fight against an alien force. As he trains, Ender has to prove himself in a series of tests and games, earning the trust and respect of his fellow cadets, and proving that he's the one to lead their epic space battles... though the fight may be coming sooner than he suspects. With Hailee Steinfeld. On DVD and Blu Ray.
Daisy (Saoirse Ronan) leaves New York to stay with her British cousins in How I Live Now, but their lives are thrown into chaos when a nuclear bomb is detonated in London. As she grows closer to her cousin Eddie (George MacKay), the tragedy threatens to tear them apart when the United States begins evacuating its citizens from England. Separated from her family, Daisy has to find the strength and courage to reunite them all, survive the coming troubles, and defend her new home. With Corey Johnson and Anna Chancelor. On DVD and Blu Ray.
When Mariah Mundy's parents mysteriously vanish in 19th century London, he's thrust into an adventure in the care of dashing hero Will Charity (Michael Sheen) in Adventurer: Curse of the Midas Box. The Mundys and Charity are secret agents in the service of the Bureau of Antiquities, and their disappearance is linked to a magic box that can turn anything into gold. Their quest to find the box and rescue Mariah's parents puts them in opposition to the nefarious Otto Luger (Sam Neill) and his henchwoman Monica (Lena Headey) who will stop at nothing to acquire the Midas Box.
Lost at sea, adrift in the Indian Ocean, Robert Redford struggles to survive in All Is Lost. Alone on his boat somewhere between Indonesia and Madagascar, he's unable to reach anyone on radio, and as his ordeal stretches through the days, his isolation and inability to save himself begin to take their toll. In order to survive, he must weather storms, ration food, somehow find fresh water, but even more threatening is the solitude and creeping despair he must overcome if he's to keep fighting for his life. On DVD and Blu Ray.
Michael Fassbender is a lawyer defending the residents of the moral gray area along the Texas/Mexico border in Ridley Scott's The Counselor. Based on the book by Cormac McCarthy, the film follows the compromised counselor-- who's spent years making easy money defending corrupt and powerful clients-- as he joins a venture set up by a group of flashy, high-power criminals (Javier Bardem, Brad Pitt, and Cameron Diaz). The deal, too good to be true, goes sour, putting the counselor and his finance (Penelope Cruz) in mortal danger, as they are forced to contend with the base realities of the loftier ideals surrounding human nature and "the evil that men do." With Bruno Ganz. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Love and the Real World

Obsessed with Mr. Darcy, from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Jane Hayes (Keri Russell) finds her ideal fantasy vacation in Austenland. Run by Jane Seymour, the Austenland theme resort is designed just for people like Ms. Hayes: she's taken from her lonely New York apartment, planted in the English countryside, adorned in period costume, and set to interact with a staff in character as Mr. Nobley (JJ Feild), Colonel Andrews, or Mr. Darcy... but can she really find romance among actors selling fantasy to Americans like herself and New Orleans socialite Elizabeth (Jennifer Coolidge)? With Bret McKenzie. On DVD and Blu Ray.
Rejoining the ensemble from 1999's The Best Man, The Best Man Holiday stars Monica Calhoun and Morris Chestnut as Mia and Lance, successful and happily married since the events of the first movie, but Mia misses her old friends and arranges a get-together for the holidays. Reuniting with best man Harper (Taye Diggs), now a best-selling novelist, and his pregnant wife Robyn (Sanaa Lathan), a successful chef, they get the whole gang back together and learn how the past fifteen years has shaped their faith, loves, and lives. With Terrence Howard and Melissa De Sousa.
An imagining of the post-separation romantic life of the Princess of Wales, Diana stars Naomi Watts as she meets Pakistani heart surgeon Hansat Khan (Naveen Andrews), and the two begin a clandestine romance. With Diana plagued by tabloid journalists and paparazzi, the two have to take precautions as their affair develops, and Kahn becomes the last great love of Princess Diana's life. With Cas Anvar.

Subtitled

10-year-old Wadjda doesn't want to fit into the strict rules of Saudi Arabian society in Wadjda, she wants to ride bikes, listen to rock 'n roll, and befriend whomever she likes. The first Saudi Arabian film directed by a woman, Wadjda unfolds from the little girl's perspective as she contends with the only world she knows, even as she refuses to be controlled by it.
Elderly sculptor Marc Cros (Jean Rochefort) takes in a Spanish political refuge during World War II in The Artist and the Model, with the understanding that she will pose for him. Working in an idyllic village in the south of France, the young woman reignites Marc's passion for art and the female form as she becomes his muse, bringing new acclaim and attention to the artist's work. With Claudia Cardinale.

Sporting Documentary

Examining the controversy around disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong, Alex Gibney's The Armstrong Lie opens with Armstrong's confession and explores his evolving legacy. Widely known as a seven-time Tour de France winner and cancer survivor, Armstrong spent years steadfastly denying any charges of doping or drug use. Given unprecedented access, the documentary tackles the athlete's history, championships, and bans preventing him from future competition, and the culture of doping in sports.
Filming the boxing champion's autobiographical memoir, Spike Lee directs Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth, a one-man show where Tyson tells his story. Recounting his troubled childhood, early days learning to box, ascent to stardom, and the troubles that followed, Mike Tyson tells the story of his life and his journey to, and from, the top.
Blending documentary footage and dramatic recreation, The Summit tells the story of a 24-man group's 2008 quest to scale K2 that went terribly wrong. Considered by some to be more dangerous than Mt. Everest, the group's successful climb turned tragic when they learned the descent would be even more dangerous than their initial climb, a discovery that would claim 11 of the mountaineers' lives.


New this week in our TV New Releases:
Sherlock
Season 3
Dr. Watson (Martin Freeman) is mourning the death of his friend, but Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) not only isn't dead, but he's about to bring Watson back into his twisted and dangerous crime-solving world.
The Americans
Season 1
Elizabeth and Philip (Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys) seem like an ordinary married couple in Cold War America, but they have to hide their true identities as KGB sleeper agents.
The League of Super Evil
Season 1
Supervillains like Voltar and Doktor Frogg plan to take over Metrotown and eventually the world... but their evil schemes never seem to help them take over much of anything
The Returned
Season 1
The residents of a secluded French mountain town are surprised when their dead loved ones suddenly reappear. Though apparently healthy and normal, their return from the grave is the first of a series of inexplicable mysteries to befall the town.
Legends of Chima
The Lion, the Crocodile,
and the Power of Chi
A small but powerful group of heroes seek to bring down Chima and restore their kingdom to the paradise it once was.
Sofia The First
Once upon a Princess
Ready to be a Princess
Princess Sofia is the newest student at the Royal Preparatory Academy, where she has to break the spell of a clumsy sorcerer before it ruins school for everyone.