Week of August 26th

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Stuck Together

Sporting goods store manager Jim (Adam Sandler) has a disastrous blind date with professional closet organizer Lauren (Drew Barrymore) in Blended, and plan not to see each other again, only to keep bumping into one another around town, bickering each time. Jim complains about Lauren to his buddy (Shaquille O'Neal) and Lauren complains about Jim to her best friend (Wendi McLendon-Covey), but, through coincidence and bad luck, the find themselves sharing a suite on a luxurious South African vacation. Now Jim and his three girls and Lauren and her two boys are trapped together at a resort-- they don't want to be stuck together, but pretending they're one large, Brady Bunch-style family is the only way they can have their extravagant getaway, no matter how many comic hijinks their farce creates. With Terry Crews. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Divorced Richard and Kate (Pierce Brosnan and Emma Thompson) tend to argue and snipe at one another when they're forced to spend time together, but they have to form a grudging alliance when a large corporation guts Richard's company and destroys their retirement plan in The Love Punch. Joined by their friends (Timothy Spall and Celia Imrie), Kate and Richard travel to the French Riviera with a plan to secure their retirement. If they can quash the squabbles that ended their marriage, they might be able to construct a con game that will rebuild their nest egg and get revenge on the cutthroat CEO that bankrupted them.

Losing Yourself

Traumatized by the death of his wife, a death he blames on the mystics and clairvoyants that prevented her from leaving the country and suffering her fatal accident, filmmaker Michael (Shane Johnson) vows to make a documentary proving that spirits, God, and supernatural entities don't exist in The Possession of Michael King. His plan is to employ every demonologist and necromancer he can find and invite a demon to possess his body-- Michael captures these rituals on film, trying to create a concrete record of how ineffective they are. When his documentary starts to feature stranger and more inexplicable phenomena than he was expecting, Michael's investigation takes a sinister turn. Is he recording supernatural events, or are his demons just in his mind?

Set outside of time, in a country somewhere between Orson Welles' The Trial, Interzone, and Terry Gilliam's Brazil, The Double is the story of Simon James (Jesse Eisenberg), an office drone so unremarkable his boss (Wallace Shawn) still can't remember his name. Though he's worked there for seven years, nobody really recognizes him, and he's charged with taking care of his boss' surly, unresponsive daughter (Yasmin Paige). He thinks he can make a connection with lonely, alientated Hannah (Mia Wasikowska) in the copy room, but just as he starts to assert himself, the office dynamic is upset by the arival of James Simon... who looks exactly like Simon James. James (also Eisenberg) is more confident and successful than Simon ever was, but what starts with James serving as a helpful life coach quickly becomes threatening: all of Simon's work, choices, and decisions are no longer his own. With James impressing Simon's boss and wooing Hannah, Simon has to find a way to assert himself, reclaim his identity, and prove he exists. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Sexual Politics

Because she is the illegitimate, mixed race daughter of a Royal Navy captain, young Dido Elizabeth Belle (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is denied the full priveledge of her 18th century aristocratic family in Belle. Raised by her great-uncle Lord Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson), lord chief justice who presides over a series of cases questioning the legality of slavery, Belle's family makes her a part of high society, but her race keeps her apart. When she meets social activist lawyer John Davinier (Sam Reid), he not only ignites her passion, but also awakens her taste for justice and equality. Set during the sea-change of Britian's attitudes towards slavery, Belle begins to stand up to the system that would render her invisible. With Miranda Richardson. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Uninspired by the experience of losing her virginity, Isabelle begins to explore her sexuality in an unusual way in Francois Ozon's Young and Beautiful: she becomes a call girl. Calm and detached, she engages her clients with an aloof curiousity, working as a prostitute by night while still attending classes and being a faithful student. As the seasons change and Isabelle's experiment evolves, she learns both the business and the act of sex, as well as the unpredictable nature of secrets. With Charlotte Rampling.

Adapted from the 1985 play, The Normal Heart stars Mark Ruffalo as Ned Weeks, a writer spurred into furious action when his friends start dying of AIDS. Set during a time when the government refused to adress or even acknowledge the existance of AIDS, Weeks leads a crusade to make the culture aware of the danger in their midst and fight the establishment that would ignore the problem. Joined by a doctor (Julia Roberts) who can support Weeks' passion with research, facts, and statistics, they fight against a system that rather ignore them as they die of a disease than admit the disease exists. With Taylor Kitsch.

Set in pre-World War I Germany, aging steel manufacturer Karl Hoffmeister (Alan Rickman) hires bright, young Friedrich as his personal assistant in A Promise. Friedrich is ambitious, earning an engineering degree despite an impoverished background, and quickly becomes an indespensible figure in the Hoffmeister household, assuring him a place close to Karl's much younger wife, Lotte (Rebecca Hall). As Friedrich develops a fascination with Lotte, his plans for a bright future could be undone by sullying the Hoffmeister's family and losing the advancement he fought so hard to gain.

New this week in our TV New Releases:

	The Walking Dead Season 4	Rick and his band of survivors are doing their best to make a safe, prosperous community within the walls of the prison, but while their walls keep out the living dead, their biggest threats are from other humans: different survivor groups would take what they have, the Governor wants his revenge, and tensions within their own group could still destroy everything they have built.		Portlandia Season 4	Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein serve up a new season of Pacific Northwest-themed comedy sketches, skewering food co-ops, bike messengers, independent book store owners, elaborate facial hair, artesianal bistros, and lots of passive-aggression.
	Sons of Anarchy Season 6	The SAMCRO gang is more damaged by infighting than the external groups that have tried to take them down, but Jax-- now the president of the club-- is looking to set the club on a better path, but a Federal Marshall is driven to see them pay for their history of drugs, guns, and murder.		Elementary Season 2	Under the guidance of Dr. Watson, Sherlock Holmes applies his extraordinary powers of deduction to the crimes and mysteries around modern New York City. He's more than equal to the task, but Sherlock will still have to contend with Professor Moriarty, the adversary he can never seem to vanquish.
	Toy Story of Terror	Little Bonnie takes Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz (Tim Allen), Jessie (Joan Cusack), and the rest of her favorite toys on a road trip, but when the car breaks down and they're all stranded in a motel together, the toys meet an action figure (Carl Weathers) who leads them through a monster-movie chase to solve the mystery of the motel.		Haven Season 4	Agent Audrey Parker is working with the Haven police department, trying to solve the mystery of The Troubles that haunt the town and discover the truth about her connection to the inscrutable town of Haven, Maine.
	Criminal Minds Season 9	Still solving murders across the country, the team has a chance to see one of their own promoted to BAU Section Chief after the death of Erin Strauss, and the secrets of JJ Jareau's past are slowly revealed as the BAU continues with their field work.		Hinterland Season 1	Transferring from London to the close-knit rural Wales, Detective Chief Inspector Tom Mathias investigates a series of murders that shock the Welsh community and drive DCI Mathias to his breaking point.