Week of October 21st

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Hard Futures

With the planet made uninhabitable by a new ice age, the remnants of humanity live on a globe-circling train in Bong Joon-Ho's Snowpiercer. Living in the tail section of the train, Curtis (Chris Evans) begins a revolution against the rigid class system trapping the less fortunate in the grimy, overcrowded rear of the train while the rich and privileged live in comfort at the front. Banding together a group including an enthusiastic boy (Jamie Bell), a drug-addled engineer (Song Kang-Ho), a grieving mother (Octavia Spencer), and his triple-amputee mentor (John Hurt), Curtis leads his revolutionaries forward through the train, from car to car, hoping to confront the train's creator (Ed Harris). The minister of the train (Tilda Swinton) would keep the punishing caste system in place, and in each car, the group from the back of the train must fight to push forward and reclaim their rights. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Bickering married couple Shane and Liz (Zach Gilford and Keile Sanchez) and single mother Eva (Carmen Ejogo) and her teenage daughter are out on the most dangerous night of the year in The Purge: Anarchy. Set during the one night in post-"Collapse" America when nothing is illegal, the four of them are easy targets for the rampant violence that rules the streets... until they meet Leo (Frank Grillo). With an armor-plated car and enough weapons to wipe out anything in his path, Leo plans to use the Purge for a mission of vengeance, but with four strays in his care, he has to shift his priorities to keep them all alive among rampagers, thrill-killers, and revolutionaries seeking to overthrow the New Founding Fathers. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Creature Comedy

Jose wasn't a very good husband (he's three months behind in his alimony payments) and is an irresponsible father (he takes his son, Sergio, with him to rob banks) in the Spanish Witching & Bitching, but a lot of his troubles are rooted in his problems with women. Constantly complaining about his ex-wife, he attracts like-minded woman haters to partner with in his bank heist. When their criminal exploits end in Sergio captured by a coven of witches, the men are facing women that truly are monstrous... instead of intimidating, dismissive, or just too honest for their delicate egos. To save his son, Jose has to stop complaining, learn the difference between women and monsters, and defeat the elder witches with wildly over-the-top slapstick violence.

Zach (Dane DeHaan) is heartbroken when his girlfriend Beth (Aubrey Plaza) dies suddenly, but he's even more distraught when she returns from the grave in Life after Beth. Zach wants to know how Beth became a zombie while her parents (John C. Reilly and Molly Shannon) want him to just accept the miracle: Beth's back! While Zach tries to make the most of his time with Beth while it lasts-- Flamenco lessons, romantic meals-- her undead self defaults to hanging out and listening to records like they always have... with the possible exception of eating people, spreading the disease, and starting the zombie apocalypse. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Family

About to be evicted from their small, Nevada community, young video blogger Tuck convinces his friends Alex and Munch to join him in a quest to save their town in Earth to Echo. Discovering that the interference on their cell phones is actually a map, the teens head out into the desert with the hope of discovering something amazing or miraculous. With Tuck filming the adventure, they make their discovery: a small, glowing extra-terrestrial they decide to call "Echo" (after rejecting "Space Ninja" and "Master Blaster"). Echo is more than just the key to saving their town, he's a powerful alien with unexplored abilities, a healthy sense of friendship, and a need to return home, even if others (Jason Gray-Stanford) in the neighborhood may have other ideas. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Laughs

Annie and Jay (Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel) decide to shake up their boring, domestic routine in Sex Tape. They film themselves in every conceivable position but, though Annie asks him to delete the video afterwards, Jay accidentally uploads it. With their video linked in the cloud and sync'd to their family and close friends (Rob Corddry and Ellie Kemper), Annie and Jay make a mad, city-spanning dash to reclaim all the devices that automatically download their video. In a world of viral videos, can they erase their embarrassing movie before anyone sees it? With Rob Lowe.

Over the course of 24 hours, unemployed college drop-out Niko wanders through modern Berlin in the German A Coffee in Berlin. Dumped by his girlfriend and moving out of their apartment, Niko doesn't even have enough money for a cup of coffee after an ATM eats his debit card. His only option is to walk from situation to situation, traveling through Berlin to reconnect with old friends, wind up in an avant garde film, comfort a melancholy housewarmer, and convince his father he's still in school... though, with everything happening around him and all the places he goes, he never seems to be able to get that cup of coffee. On DVD and Blu Ray.

A filmed version of his one man show, Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays spans decades, letting Crystal tell the anecdotal account of his storied career. Careening through his life, bouncing from era to era and subject to subject, the show paints a broad portrait of a performer's peaks and valleys, and the unpredictable nature of life.

New this week in our TV New Releases:

Mad Men Season 7 part 1

As Don Draper and the Sterling Cooper Agency head toward the 1970s, their final season together will reveal the final fates of the company's founders, Pete's evolving career and family, Peggy's continued growth, and Don's troubled marriage.