Week of April 8th

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Magic

Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) is in the middle of his quest through Middle Earth in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Still pursued by orcs, Bilbo accompanies the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and Thorin Oakenshield's (Richard Armitage) band of dwarves as they search for the gem that will finally unite the dwarves under Thorin's kingship. Their adventure will take them through a land filled with orcs, giant spiders, skin-changers, and wood elves-- including Legolas and Tauriel (Orlando Bloom and Evangeline Lilly)-- before they enter the Lonely Mountain and steal the gem from the dragon Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch). On DVD, Blu Ray, and 3D Blu.

While Pixie Hollow celebrates the Four Seasons Festival, banished fairy Zarina puts the entire town to sleep in Tinkerbell: The Pirate Fairy. Tinkerbell and her friends are immune to Zarina's magic and decide to follow her. Zarina leads them to a pirate ship, and that she's become a pirate fairy. Tinkerbell and her friends have to face Zarina and the pirates and escape magical mix-ups if they want to save Pixie Hollow and finish the festival.

A Weekend Away

Edith (Vera Farmiga) accompanies her daughter (Taissa Farmiga) for a tour of a Washington State college in At Middleton, where an argument over a parking space introduces them to nerdy heart surgeon George (Andy Garcia). George is also at the campus tour for his son, and while both parents had hoped that the weekend would be a bonding experience with their children, Edith and George find themselves in each other's company. Separated from the group, they wander the campus, delighting in their day together as the connection between them grows. With Tom Skerritt.

Family Strife

Adapted from the acclaimed play, August: Osage County stars Meryl Streep as Violet, the Weston matriarch, as the family gathers at her home. Summoned to the Weston home after the death of Violet's husband (Sam Shepard), their three daughters (including Julia Roberts as Barbara), Violet's sister and brother-in-law (Margo Martindale and Chris Cooper), their son Charles (Benedict Cumberbatch), and Barbara's estranged husband (Ewan McGregor) gather under one roof for the first time in years. With Violet's self-proclaimed roll as a "truth-teller," the crowded house's barely restrained secrets and simmering resentments are quickly brought to the surface, as the Westons contend with the realities of their family. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Five years in the making, Michael Winterbottom's Everyday is the story of a Ian's (John Simm) years prison and the way it shapes his life, and the life of his wife Karen (Shirley Henderson). As time passes and their four children grow up, Karen holds the family together as Ian endures his sentence, while his visits for Christmas show the strain his mistakes have put on them all.

Marked

Expanding the mythology established in the previous films, Paranormal Activity: Marked Ones shifts the story from the suburbs to the streets of Oxnard, CA, where best friends Jesse and Hector's highschool graduation celebration is cut short by the interference of the occult. Investigating the apartment of an elderly neighbor who just passed away, they discover a room full of demonic symbols, ritual devices, piles of VHS tapes, and, most frightening of all, pictures of Jesse. As Jesse slowly changes, he begins to suspect he's being haunted... he's developing inhuman strength, but he's also growing more dangerous and unpredictable by the day.

Stood up by her girlfriend, Samantha (Najarra Townsend) drinks too much with friends in a bar and ends up in a random guy's car in Contracted. When she feels lousy the next day, she assumes it's a hangover... the day after that, when she feels worse, she suspects something is wrong. Her mother (Caroline Williams) accuses her of a drug relapse, and her best friend doesn't know how to react to her, and her doctor can't diagnose her, but since the night of her drunken mistake, Samantha begins to suspect that she is rotting from the inside out.

Lady Killers

Abby Russell (Paz de la Huerta) trolls nightspots to find, seduce, and murder unfaithful men in Nurse. Working at a New York City hospital, she takes on an innocent, new nurse Danni (Katrina Bowden) as an understudy, and works to subtly turn her into another deadly weapon against men who would use women. Abby insinuates herself into Danni's life and begins to work her magic, killing anyone who would get in her way: hospital staff, friends, Danni's step-father (Judd Nelson), and a variety interfering, untrustworthy men. With Martin Donovan.

Based on the true story of the notorious 1892 murder, Lizzie Borden Took an Ax stars Christina Ricci as Lizzie, the frustrated daughter of a successful businessman (Stephen McHattie). As she rankles against her father's restrictive household, his ending her credit in local stores, and forbidding her socializing, Lizzie becomes increasingly dissatisfied with her father and step-mother (Sara Botsford). When she reports the brutal axe murders of her parents to the police they puzzle over her story-- her sister (Clea Duvall) was out of the house, Lizzie's alibi doesn't make much sense, and key evidence goes missing-- and she quickly becomes the prime suspect. As the case gains national notoriety, the Borden family lawyer (Billy Campbell) develops the best defense the 19th century has to offer: a woman could not be an axe murderer.

Rivals

Two aging, retired boxers are reunited for an exhibition match by an ambitious promoter (Kevin Hart) in Grudge Match. Former rivals, Henry "Razor" Sharp (Sylvester Stallone) and Billy "The Kid" McDonnen (Robert De Niro) bump into each other while contributing their likenesses to a video game... old tempers flare and a fight breaks out, but cell phone footage of their tussle goes viral on YouTube. Their new popularity could be the last boxing payday for either of them, but the long simmering bad blood between them is toxic: old injuries, failed careers, rivalry over a woman (Kim Basinger), and wounded pride drive them to comically excessive bad behavior. With Alan Arkin. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Scott lives with his grandmother and has a lousy job, so his pride and joy is his life as a role-playing game master in Zero Charisma. One of his players chooses marriage over the game, and Scott fills the position with Miles, a stranger he meets at his local game shop. Though Scott intends to wow the newbie with his gaming skills, Miles charms the group by being charming, low-key, and geek-knowlegable... everything Scott isn't. When the group makes Miles their game master, Scott starts to fall apart, and has to take stock of his own pettiness and personal failings.

Documentary

Exploring the rise of Mexican drug cartels from the perspective of the soldiers who engage in-- and sing about-- the violence that surrounds them in Narco Cultura. From the point of view of Edgar Quintero, a singer/songwriter for a Los Angeles-based latin folk band, the life of the gagster is one of uncompromised aggression and ambition... but when the film shifts to the everyday conditions Juarez, and the life of crime scene investigator Richi Soto, Quintero's lyrics are put into sharp contrast with reality.

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New this week in our TV New Releases:

	Earthflight		BBC's nature documentary shows flight from the perspective of birds in the air, traveling across six continents and observing the planet's oceans, mountains, plains, and skies.
	Sofia the First Floating Palace		Sofia is traveling the seas in a ship called The Floating Palace when a shipwreck throws her into an adventure of mermaids, castaways, and underwater kingdoms.