Week of November 20

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Larger than Life

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Meredith reviews
Expendables 2

Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) and his bromantic partner (Jason Statham) and young protege (Liam Hemsworth) lead The Expendables (including hand-to-hand expert Jet Li, heavy weapons expert Terry Crews, explosives expert Randy Couture, and unhinged warrior Dolph Lundgren) into volatile Nepal in The Expendables 2, rescuing Ross' kidnapped rival (Arnold Schwarzenegger). When their actions put them back under control of a demanding CIA agent (Bruce Willis), the boys are forced into an impossible mission, fighting to keep sensitive material out of the hands of an international arms dealer (Jean-Claude Van Damme). Ross, The Expendables, and all their allies cross the globe to take down their enemies, from gun fight to helicopter chase to all out war, destroying everything that gets in their way. On DVD and Blu Ray.

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In the real world

Collecting interviews from military survivors of sexual assault, Kirby Dick's The Invisible War explores rape of US servicewomen and the United States Armed Forces policies in dealing with complaints of assault. The documentary researches both the frequency of the assaults (as of 2011, 30% of servicewomen reported a sexual assault) and the military's general responses of denial and silence.

Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed is the subject of The Island President, a documentary by Lost Boys of Sudan director Jon Shenk. The Maldives, famous as an island paradise vacation spot, had been run by a brutal dictator for 30 years before President Nasheed, but when Nasheed was able to rally popular support for democratic elections, the Maldives were already facing another crisis: the islands, just barely above sea level, could be completely submerged by global climate change and rising water levels. Mohamed Nasheed led a crusade at the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Summit, fighting for environmental measures that could be agreed upon by the United States, China, India, to prevent his country from being swallowed by the ocean.

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Ukrainian-born grifter Olive (Milla Jovovich) lives from con to con, winning money from anyone gullible enough to give it to her in Bringing Up Bobby. Olive is doing her best to provide for Bobby, her 10-year-old son, but her criminal lifestyle and the company of other small time crooks (Rory Cochrane) aren't providing Bobby with much of an environment. When she finally gets caught, Bobby is taken in by a wealthy couple (Bill Pullman and Marcia Cross)... but is he better off with his new family, or should he join the mother he loves as she tries to go straight, get a real job, and prove her worth?

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Convinced they're old enough to spread Christmas cheer on their own, four puppies stow away on Mrs. Claus' sled in Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups. When they begin granting Christmas wishes on their own, the puppies cause more mischief than they could have imagined... but they're still just trying to spread happiness and good cheer. On DVD and Blu Ray.

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New this week in our TV New Releases:

	Doctor Who Series 7.1	The Eleventh Doctor keeps drifting through space and time, saving people and righting wrongs, but his companions Amy and Rory struggle with their real, ordinary lives grinding to a halt every time the Tardis materializes in their midst.		Lost Girl Season 2	With the weight of Bo's prophesized future tearing apart the world of the faerie folk, she must learn to work within the rules of the Fae community to find the answers she needs.
	Ken Burns Dust Bowl	The newest documentary miniseries from Ken Burns details the American Great Depression in the 1930s and the impact of the dust bowl on the nation.		The Munsters Complete	A mash-up of classic monster movies and 1960s family sitcoms puts horror movie icons into suburbia as a typical middle-class family.

Week of November 13

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Family Strife

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Meredith reviews
Brave

Teenage Meridia (Kelly Macdonald) takes after her father (Billy Connolly) in Pixar's Brave: a flame-haired, willful Scottish warrior. Thanks to her father, the king, she grew up with a bow in hand, but as Meridia grows into a young woman, her mother (Emma Thompson) needs her to be a proper princess... which, aside from changing how she speaks and dresses, involves being married to the eldest son of another clan. Wanting to live her own life her own way (and marry when she's ready), Meridia asks a witch (Julie Walters) to change her fate, and change her mother's mind, but the change doesn't come the way she expected. Now she has to restore her fate, undo what she's done to her mother, and prevent the war her refusal to marry could spark among the clans. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Along with Brave, Pixar has also released Pixar Short Films: Volume 2, collecting the award-winning animation studio's short films produced since the release of the DVD of their first shorts collection. Volume 2 includes Ratatouille's Your Friend the Rat, WALL-E's BURN-E, Up's Doug's Special Mission and George & A.J, Toy Story's Hawaiian Vacation and Small Fry, Cars 2's Air Mater and Time Travel Mater, Academy Award nominees Presto, Day & Night, and La Luna, and more. On DVD and Blu Ray.

30-something Abe (Jordan Gelber) imagines himself a successful man, a "front runner with dark horse tendencies," in Todd Solondz's Dark Horse, but he works at his father's (Christopher Walken) real-estate business... usually buying collectable toys online while a co-worker (Donna Murphy) covers for him. When he meets the heavily medicated Miranda (Selma Blair), Abe may have found someone as lost as himself, and proposes to her on their first date... but Abe's point of view flits between his real life and a series of daydreams and unrealistic expectations as he imagines himself blameless for all of his disappointments and casts himself as the hero of his own story. With Mia Farrow and Justin Bartha. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Though Ralphie (Braeden Lemasters) is turning sixteen, not much has changed in his family in A Christmas Story 2: the Old Man (Daniel Stern) is still grouchy and trying to save a buck, his mom (Stacey Travis) is still the voice of reason, and his little brother still gets wrapped head-to-toe before being sent out into the snow. Ralphie's grown out of BB guns, though-- now he wants a car-- but the object of his desire gets wrecked before he can even drive it off the lot, and Ralphie and his friends need to get jobs to pay the car salesman before Christmas.

Marion (Julie Delpy, who also directs) is living in New York with Mingus (Chris Rock) in 2 Days in New York when her family comes to visit. Suddenly, their apartment is overrun by her father (who knows no English), her exhibitionist sister (Alexia Landeau), and her sister's boyfriend (who sees nothing wrong with making drug deals in front of the kids). As their lives are turned upside-down right before Marion's big art show, Mingus begins to wonder if the lunatic in his home is Marion's true self and, as her behavior gets stranger and stranger, Marion begins to wonder herself. On DVD and Blu Ray.

A filmed stage performance of Stephen Sondheim's musical, Company stars Neil Patrick Harris as Bobby, a 35-year-old bachelor, as he interacts with his groups of married friends. Still unsure of his path in life, Bobby's friends give him a series of lessons on marriage, love, divorce, doldrums, and mid-life crises. With Stephen Colbert and Christina Hendricks.

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Comedy Monsters

New York roommates Goody and Stacy (Alicia Silverstone and Krysten Ritter) are single girls who have an interesting take on city nightlife in Amy Heckerling's Vamps... mostly because they're vampires. Goody's had a hard time since being turned in 1841, feeding on rats because she doesn't want to kill anyone, but things got easier when her sire (Sigourney Weaver) turned Stacy in the 1990s. The two attend meetings to keep themselves murder-free-- if an old population destroyer like Vlad (Malcolm McDowell) is happier knitting than killing, the girls should have no problem-- but Goody is afraid of what will happen if their still-murderous sire is killed and they suddenly revert to their real ages... because Sandy doesn't know how old Goody really is. On DVD and Blu Ray.

When a Costco night security guard is murdered in a sleepy, suburban Ohio town, Evan (Ben Stiller), the store manager, takes action in The Watch. Evan's already part of every committee in town, but he adds one more duty and starts a neighborhood watch program... unfortunately, the only people who join him are loud and jocular Bob (Vince Vaughn), unstable and violent Franklin (Jonah Hill), and out-of-town nebbish Jamarcus (Richard Ayoade), all more interested in drinking beer than preventing crimes. When they discover the truth-- that the local death is the beginning of an alien invasion-- the local police (Will Forte) won't take them seriously, so it's up to The Watch to save the Earth. On DVD and Blu Ray.

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Violence

Afghanistan veteran Chon (Taylor Kitsch) and Buddhist hippie Ben (Aaron Johnson) are top-tier marijuana growers with their mutual girlfriend O (Blake Lively) in Oliver Stone's Savages, but their idyllic California life is threatened when a Mexican cartel offers them a deal. Chon wants to fight and Ben wants to walk away, but refusing the deal sets a brutal enforcer on them (Benicio Del Toro), kidnapping O, forcing them to comply. The boys have to play along to keep her alive, but they use a corrupt FBI agent (John Travolta) to exploit the cartel's weaknesses, taking the fight all the way to the boss (Salma Hayek) to get O back. On DVD and Blu Ray.

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The Real World

Red Chapel director Mads travels to another dangerous, unpredictable nation in The Ambassador, securing black market diplomatic papers and establishing himself as an ambassador to the Central African Republic (CAR). Though the people that get him into the CAR warn him that he could end up in a cell (or dead in a ditch), Brügger sets up hidden cameras and begins meeting with government officials, heads of security, and powerful businessmen. His goal: to "travel the world with a suitcase full of diamonds," not motivated by greed, but to expose how easily blood diamonds are traded throughout the world by corrupt, unscrupulous, and even murderous individuals at the highest levels of African governments.

What began as a documentary about the largest home in the United States became a different kind of film after the 2008 collapse of the real estate market. The Queen of Versailles begins in the heyday of the Siegel family, David, king of the time-share sales, and his beauty-queen wife Jackie. Suddenly shifted from being millionaires to struggling to get by, the family has to adapt to their new situation as David Siegel searches for a way to raise the money to put their fortunes back in order.

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New this week in our TV New Releases:

Heartland Season 2

Amy and her grandfather Jack heal and raise wounded and neglected horses among the ups and downs of ranch life in the Canadian Rockies.

Week of November 6

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Fighting for what's right

Spider-Man
Now & Then

Re-telling the super-hero's origin story, high school student Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) develops super powers when he's bitten by a radioactive spider in The Amazing Spider-Man. Driven by the loss of his Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen), Peter builds web-shooters, makes himself a blue and red costume, and takes to the streets to fight crime... which isn't appreciated by Police Captain Stacey (Denis Leary), father of Peter's classmate Gwen Stacey (Emma Stone). Worse, Peter's new interests inspire a one-armed scientist's (Rhys Ifans) research in genetic mutation that could re-grow a limb, releasing a violent lizard/man hybrid on the streets of New York that only Spider-Man can stop. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Fireman Jeremy Coleman (Josh Duhamel) is the lone survivor of a liquor store hold up, a message to the Crip-controlled neighborhood from a Nazi gang, in Fire with Fire. Coleman is now an eye-witness that can testify against a notorious murderer (Vincent D'Onofrio) that Detective Cella (Bruce Willis) has been trying to put away for years... but all his witnesses keep dying. When Coleman's witness protection is compromised and his protecting agent (Rosario Dawson) is attacked, he refuses to go back into hiding: he'll go after the Nazis that want him dead and bring them down himself. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Hirokin (Wes Bentley) is a wandering warrior on a desert planet in Hirokin: The Last Samurai, but he's pushed to be a reluctant hero to the subjugated Fremen-ish Arrid people as they struggle against the brutal tyranny of Griffin (Julian Sands), who may or may not resemble Sting as a several-decades-older Feyd from David Lynch's Dune. Trained by the Arrid's Obi-Wan surrogate (Angus Macfadyen) in their lost warrior's art (not unlike the Force and/or the Weirding Way), Hirokin must embrace his destiny and stand up to the dictator, fighting injustice against incredible odds. With Jessica Szohr and Laura Ramsey.

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Connected

Jack (Mark Duplass) is a mess, so Iris (Emily Blunt) sends him up to her family's isolated cabin for some alone time in Humpday director Lynn Shelton's Your Sister's Sister. When Jack gets there, he's surprised to find the cabin already occupied by Iris' sister Hannah (Rosemarie DeWitt), also needing some solitude after ending a seven-year relationship. After Jack and Hannah spend a drunken night together, and Iris shows up the next morning, all three have to navigate a few secrets and confidences that could threaten family, friendship, and love. On DVD and Blu Ray.

A globe-spanning ensemble piece, Fernando Meirelles' 360 weaves together the stories of a Hungarian escort and her straight-laced sister, an Algerian (Jamel Debbouze) man in a crisis of faith, a wealthy married couple (Jude Law and Rachel Weisz) with relationship problems, a sex offender (Ben Foster) released into society after six years in prison, a troubled father (Anthony Hopkins) searching for his daughter, and a Russian driver working for a dangerous gangster. Their lives intersect in unexpected ways, some major, some minor, even as the events that start their stories seem to happen every day for someone else. On DVD and Blu Ray.

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They're coming for you

It's the day of Clara (Leticia Dolera) and Koldo's wedding in Paco Plaza's [•Rec] 3: Genesis, but their reception takes an unexpected turn when a bite wound on a guest's hand turns him into a zombie in the middle of the party. Koldo's shepherding a young girl and Clara's trapped with a groomsman (Javier Botet) when they're separated... but it's their day, and they're determined to find each other: he dons a suit of decorative armor and she picks up a chainsaw, and the couple head into the zombie party to reunite and take back their wedding day.

Jenny (Kelly Reilly) and her boyfriend Steve (Michael Fassbender) get away to a remote lake for a romantic vacation in Eden Lake, but they're harassed by a group of kids while at the shore. Steve stands up to them, and the children leave, but a series of pranks continue to disturb their vacation. When he confronts the the leader of the group, he turns out to be a sociopathic teenager (Jack O'Connell) who has no problem with having his pack torture and kill the tourists.

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Philosophy

The documentary Being in the World explores the philosophy of what defines people's humanity in a technological age. Infused with the ideas of several philosophers through history, the film interviews craftsmen, cooks, musicians, and more about their work, passion, and style, and how they ultimately relate to Heidegger's ideas of "being."

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Kids

12-year-old Koichi and his younger brother Ryunosuke live on opposite sides of the country because of their parents' divorce in Hirokazu Koreeda's I Wish, but their hopes run wild when they find out a new bullet train will link their towns. The brothers' stories are shuffled with classmates, adults, and townsfolk in a larger character story about family, dreams, and unity.

The current Santa Claus (Jim Broadbent) is at the end of his 70th Christmas in Arthur Christmas, but he's getting too old for the job. His older son (Hugh Laurie) is ready to take over the job with his high-tech version of Christmas, but his youngest, the clumsy Arthur (James McAvoy), has been demoted to the mail room. When Arthur finds out that Santa missed a child, he and Grandpa-Claus (Bill Nighy) dust off the old, reindeer-powered, wooden sleigh and take off to make sure that every kid gets visited by Santa on Christmas. On DVD and Blu Ray.

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Other Cultures

Director Sebastian (Gael Garcia Bernal) and producer Costa (Luis Tosar) travel to Bolivia to make a film about Christopher Columbus and the Spanish invasion of the New World in the Spanish-language Even the Rain. Their film is meant to highlight the Spanish atrocities and the effect of their hunt for gold on the native people, but their location is far from Columbus' landing place and they're nonchalant about using Bolivian extras because the filmmakers believe "all Indians look the same." Their project takes a new turn when the realities of Bolivia encroach on their message.

Featured at the Seattle International Film Festival, the Swedish Kiss Me is the story of Mia, a tightly-wound businesswoman, attending her father's engagement party. When she meets Frida, her mother-in-law-to-be's daughter, she's struck by an instant attraction that throws her life, and her engagement to her long-term boyfriend, out of balance.

Taking a break from filmmaking to teach classes in a small town, a director arrives in Seoul in Hong Sang-Soo's The Day He Arrives. Wandering aimlessly, he runs into an old friend and navigates the city trying to relocate lost purpose... drinking with film students, meeting someone that reminds him of an old girlfriend, spending long drinking nights with various people, and trying to find his way in a world of film festivals and movie relationships.

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New this week in our TV New Releases:

Copper Series 1

In 1860's, Civil War-era New York City, an Irish-immigrant cop patrols the class and racially divided Five Points neighborhood while searching for information about the fates of his wife and daughter.

Week of October 30

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Fantasies of the Outsiders

Wanted: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before. Safety not guaranteed.

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Meredith reviews
Safety Not Guaranteed

Jeff (Jake Johnson), a writer at Seattle Magazine, drives to Ocean View, Washington to research a story with intern Darius (Aubrey Plaza) in tow in Safety Not Guaranteed. They're investigating a classified ad looking for a partner for time travel, but self-proclaimed time traveler Kenneth (Mark Duplass) wants nothing to do with a cynical writer like Jeff... so Darius goes under cover. While Jeff uses his time in Ocean View to track down an old girlfriend (Jenica Bergere), Darius is brought into Kenneth's world of Do-It-Yourself time travel, righting wrongs, and emotional vulnerability. It all seems crazy, but Kenneth is earnest enough for Darius to start believing in him. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Young writer Calvin (Paul Dano) was dubbed a "genius" over the strength of his first novel, but now he's suffering from writer's block in Ruby Sparks. When his therapist (Elliott Gould) instructs him to write about someone who likes his dog, Calvin invents the character of Ruby Sparks (Zoe Kazan), a perfect, quirky, free spirited girl... and then, suddenly, she's actually in his life. Just as he wrote her, Ruby is Calvin's girlfriend, staying in his house. Calvin thinks he's losing his mind-- how real can she be, if Ruby is always just as Calvin writes her? With Chris Messina.

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Behaving Badly

North Carolina's Congressman Cam Brady's (Will Ferrell) scandals and childish behavior have made him an embarrassment in The Campaign, so the businessmen (John Lithgow and Dan Aykroyd) who control Cam's district decide to make a change. They ask a colleague (Brian Cox) to put his son into the race, and suddenly Cam isn't running unopposed: he's squaring off against Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis), a meek, quiet, family man. Marty's given a cutthroat campaign manager (Dylan McDermott) and sent to win the election, and Cam and Marty begin a campaign of slander, one-upmanship, public humiliation, and baby punching... but neither of them know what their backing business interests have in mind for the victor. With Jason Sudeikis. On DVD and Blu Ray.

When his school bans Catcher in the Rye, Andrew and his friends get suspended when they too-enthusiastically defend the book in Bindlestiffs, one of the first films out of Kevin Smith's Smodcast Productions. Andrew's obsessed with Holden Caulfield, and he takes his friends out to live their own Catcher in the Rye adventure... but they're naive, and immediately veer off the novel's path and into their own twisted, comically exaggerated adventure of prostitutes, drugs, and encounters with the homeless.

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Realism

In 1995, shortly before he regained control of the company he founded, Apple mastermind Steve Jobs recorded a rare, long-form interview. Released to the public for the first time as Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview, the film provides detailed information about the beginnings of computer culture and Jobs' particular philosophy and approach to advancing society.

Shot in a docu-realistic style, the French Polisse adopts a fly-on-the-wall style as a photographer (Maiwenn, who also directs) is given access to the Juvenile Protection Squad of the Paris police department. The squad goes out on individual missions, tracking down child abusers of all kinds, as the stress of the job affects the lives of the officers involved in a dangerous, specialized field of law enforcement. With Karin Viard.

Six ballet dancers are on their way to the American Grand Prix in the documentary First Position, a film that follows children age 11-17 as they prepare for the five minutes on stage that could be their best chance at a professional dancing career. From different backgrounds, teachers with different approaches, and different levels of parental involvement, the film observes the children, their lives, and what they have to give to earn their place in the spotlight.

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Family and Community

In order to close a deal for tribal land, Joe (Brandon Routh) has to return to his Onondaga tribe and coach their underdog lacrosse team in Crooked Arrows. His father (Gil Birmingham) won't let him broker the land deal until Joe sets his spirit right, and teaching the boys in the ways of "the healing game," the sport that has been part of their tribe's heritage for over a thousand years, is his first step. With Chelsea Ricketts.

With his status as the Dragon Warrior, Po (Jack Black) is charged with hosting the prestigious and mannered Winter Feast in Kung Fu Panda Holiday. His new duties mean he won't be able to have holiday dinner with his father (James Hong), but how can he disappoint Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) and the gathering of the greatest kung fu legends in the land?

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New this week in our TV New Releases:

	Metalocalypse Season 4	Dethklok are still comically overreacting to fame, wealth, and metal as they remain oblivious to the prophecy of the Metalocalypse, as narrated by Werner Herzog.		Star Wars Clone Wars Season 4	Anakin, Obi Wan, and the rest of the Jedi continue to fight the Clone Wars and uncover the threat from the Dark Side of the Force.
	Upstairs / Downstairs Series 2	The continuing story of the class divide within the house of Sir Hallam Holland, his family, and the large staff that keeps his estate running.		Chuggington Icy Escapades	The Chuggers take on the cold weather as winter comes to the station and their world gets icy.