DVD Releases December 28 2010

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Movie & TV DVD Releases this week. December 28 2010

The American
Directed by Anton Corbijn
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Control's Anton Corbijn gives the crime film a distinctly European twist in this understated thriller (think The Day of the Jackal). A trim George Clooney plays Jack, a hit man who relocates from Sweden to Italy after assailants try to take his life. Jack's handler (Johan Leysen) advises him not to make any friends, which proves easier said than done. Ensconced in medieval Abruzzo, the assassin passes himself off as a photographer (in Martin Booth's novel, A Very Private Gentleman, he claimed to be an illustrator), but he's actually customizing an assault rifle for Mathilde (Thekla Reuten), his female counterpart. Upon his excursions through town, Jack meets Father Benedetto (Paolo Bonacelli), who senses he has something to confess--"A priest sees everything," he explains--but Jack would prefer to share a brandy. He also befriends Clara, a prostitute (Violante Placido, perfectly comfortable with onscreen nudity). What starts out as a sexual relationship deepens as Jack's sensitive side--he has a thing for butterflies--emerges, but then the Swedes discover his hiding place, and Jack develops doubts about his lady friends, leading to a showdown that plays like a scene from an old Western, a debt Corbijn acknowledges when Jack chances upon a broadcast of Once upon a Time in the West. If the conclusion doesn't cut as deep as the director intends, his admirable restraint throughout keeps the tension at a low boil, while Clooney tamps down his charisma to play a dogged professional with redemption on his mind.

DVD Releases December 21 2010

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Movie & TV DVD Releases this week. December 21 2010

Salt
Directed by Philip Noyce
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Angelina Jolie confirms her status as action-heroine supreme in the sinewy thriller Salt. Evelyn Salt (Jolie) is a respected high-ranking CIA agent… until a defecting Russian operative declares that she's a Russian mole in deep cover, launching her on the most delicious chase sequence since the Bourne movies. When the film's over you'll realize the motivations for much of what happened didn't make much sense, but while the movie's going on the pell-mell pace will brush such concerns from your mind. Director Phillip Noyce (Patriot Games, Dead Calm) has a gift for staging action sequences you can actually follow moment to moment, which is infinitely more engaging than frenzied editing that blurs everything into cattle-prod jolts--the movie's first third is top-notch orchestration. Jolie's star magnetism provides the cool, calm axis around which everything else revolves; the sturdy supporting performances of Liev Schreiber (The Manchurian Candidate) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Inside Man, Dirty Pretty Things) give enough heft to the plot to keep you from questioning anything. Salt is an old-fashioned entertainment, a skillfully made mechanism with enough grace notes to let it breathe and catch you by surprise.

DVD Releases December 14 2010

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Movie & TV DVD Releases this week. December 14 2010

The Other Guys
Directed by Adam McKay
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Although the comedy team of Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg does not sound like a threat to Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello, they conjure up consistent laughs in The Other Guys, yet another comedy from Talladega Nights director Adam McKay. Ferrell plays a mild-mannered police accountant partnered with Wahlberg's hothead (recently demoted to desk-jockey duty after shooting a very famous Yankee player during the World Series), and both men must endure the showboating fame of a pair of supercops (Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson) in their New York City precinct house. Along with sending up cop-movie clichés, the movie basically exists to give Ferrell and Wahlberg room to work amusing variations on their characters (with grace notes for Michael Keaton's stereotypical tough captain, too). The loosey-goosey structure works especially well when Wahlberg is needling his partner's squareness or marveling, in wonderfully awestruck tones, at the unbelievable hot-i-tude of Ferrell's wife (Eva Mendes)--a discrepancy made all the more maddening because Ferrell seems indifferent to her charms. Throw in a plot about a billionaire Wall Street crook (Steve Coogan) and the revelation of Ferrell's hilariously dark past, and the movie finds a nice zone of silliness. Of course, any Will Ferrell vehicle must be judged by the opportunities for the star to launch into some borderline-surreal riff--and happily, this film comes through. From the moment Ferrell begins deconstructing Wahlberg's lion versus tuna metaphor, The Other Guys manages to find time for such nonsense, and the film--the world in general, for that matter--is the better for it.

DVD Releases December 7 2010

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Movie & TV DVD Releases this week. December 7 2010

Shrek Forever After (Single-Disc Edition)
Directed by Mike Mitchell
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Shrek Forever After delivers laughs, life lessons, and a striking picture of the realities of parenthood in this surprisingly good, fourth Shrek film. Like the original film, this fractured fairytale works because of the humor--it pokes fun at the whole fairytale genre on a multitude of intellectual levels while simultaneously offering visual humor that's appealing to all ages. After a frantic flip through a tongue-in-cheek fairytale book of the first three Shrek films, the scene opens on a beaming Shrek and Fiona as they awaken to a chorus of their noisy children standing at the foot of the bed, and it follows them through a typically hectic day of feeding, diapering, and caring for their children until they collapse into a satisfied heap at the end of the day. One of the funniest bits in the film, at least for adults, is how this scene repeats, faster and faster and in smaller and smaller excerpts, until Shrek's look of bliss slowly turns into a pained, midlife-crisis expression that screams "Help me, I'm trapped in this domestic purgatory and there's no escape in sight." As in any good fairytale, the protagonist's chance for escape comes in the form of a deal with the devil, in this case Rumpelstiltskin. Following in the footsteps of the classic film It's a Wonderful Life, Shrek is granted the opportunity to spend a day in an alternate reality in which he is the independent, terrifying ogre he once was. Of course, the deal carries some very serious, unintended consequences, and Shrek's day of freedom may just cost him Fiona, the children, and even his very existence. Mike Meyers and Cameron Diaz are once again stellar as the voices of Shrek and Fiona; Antonio Banderas is still all swagger despite Puss-in-Boots' now-portly figure and thoroughly domesticated ways; Eddie Murphy remains just as hilarious as in the first film as Donkey, who in this story doesn't recognize Shrek and can't fathom the possibility of a donkey and an ogre becoming friends; and Walt Dohrn is an extremely effective newcomer as the voice of Rumpelstiltskin. Other key players are the Pied Piper, with his new, tricked-out flute; a mob of broom-riding, jack-o'-lantern-throwing witches; an overgrown white goose; and a whole resistance movement of ogres under the command of a most unexpected leader. The battles are fierce and the lesson powerful: learn to appreciate what you've got. While 3-D digital is always nice, most viewers will completely forget that the film is in 3-D after the initial scene, and it will view just as well in the traditional format. (Rated PG, but appropriate for most ages 6 and older)

DVD Releases November 30 2010

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Movie & TV DVD Releases this week. November 30 2010

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
From Summit Entertainment
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The third installment of Stephenie Meyer's blockbuster vampire series is its most action packed, both in terms of fight scenes and human-vampire-werewolf lovin'. In Eclipse, the vampiric Cullen clan and the werewolves--their sworn enemies--unite against an army of "newborn" vampires, whose remnants of human blood in their veins makes them stronger and more uncontrollable, causing a string of murders in the Seattle area. They've been created by the vengeful vampire Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard, taking over for Rachelle Lefevre), still keen on destroying human Bella (Kristen Stewart). Thus, Bella is under careful watch, and her undead love Edward (Robert Pattinson) and werewolf best friend Jacob (Taylor Lautner) spend a lot of time arguing over who is the better man for her. (In one hilarious scene where Bella's freezing and only Jacob has the lupine body heat to warm her, he looks over at Edward and cracks, "I am hotter than you." Go Team Jacob!) But there's more at the heart of the triangle than love: Bella, against Edward's warnings, doesn't want to grow older than him and would willingly give up contact with her parents, the chance to grow old with children, and more to be turned into a bloodthirsty vampire. (Jacob's trump card is that Bella wouldn't have to give up her mortality to be with him.) But the unfolding of this love triangle is even clumsier than it was on the page; you're never really convinced Bella has romantic feelings for Jacob, even during their climactic kiss on top of the mountain. This is likely to confuse non-readers of the book series, as Stewart emotes nothing that intones there's a real competition here (clearly, she's Team Edward).

Pattinson, on the other hand, appears to have overcome his awkwardness to become a much cooler Edward; Howard, while missing Lefevre's mischief as Victoria, brings her own touch of soft-spoken manipulation; and Billy Burke, as Bella's father Charlie, continues to steal every scene he's in. The other Cullens also get far more play here, notably Rosalie (Nikki Reed), whose revealing back story is touching and tragic, and Jasper (Jackson Rathbone), who trains everyone in combat and who, halfway through the movie, adopts a sudden Southern accent that he didn't have before, once it's revealed he was a Confederate soldier (on a side note, it's mentioned in the books that Jasper can calm the emotions of others, but that trait isn't used in the movie). The climactic fight scene is well staged by director David Slade (30 Days of Night, Hard Candy); the violence, while not bloody, is still more abundant and disturbing than in the previous films; and the sex, while not actually happening between anyone (yet), is certainly on everyone's mind (but Edward wants to get married first). It seems the characters, and the series, are growing up.

DVD Releases November 23 2010

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Movie & TV DVD Releases this week. November 23 2010

Eat Pray Love
Directed by Ryan Murphy
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Elizabeth Gilbert's memoir of enlightenment gets the deluxe treatment at the hands of Glee creator Ryan Murphy, who bathes every scene in a golden glow. Unaccustomed to being alone, Liz (Julia Roberts) exits her marriage to Stephen (Billy Crudup, quite good) only to enter into an affair with an actor (James Franco, curiously uncomfortable), who introduces her to meditation. Just as her editor, Delia (Doubt's Viola Davis, making the most of a small role), longed to have a baby, Liz has longed to see the world. Delia persuades her to seize the day (plus, money presents no obstacle). First, she travels to Italy, where she noshes from Rome to Naples, making new friends along the way. Then, she heads to an ashram in India, where she meets a bride-to-be and a remorseful man (Richard Jenkins, heartbreaking), who nurture her altruistic side. Her sojourn ends in Bali, where she reunites with Ketut (Hadi Subiyanto, hilarious), the healer who first encouraged her to reassess her situation. While there, she befriends a single mother and a single father (No Country for Old Men's Javier Bardem) who falls for her charms. In an improvement over his version of Running with Scissors, Murphy combines two Oscar winners, two Oscar nominees, and four countries to follow one woman's path to fulfillment. Like Julie and Julia and How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Liz's story becomes more involving as she lets go of the superficial, but Murphy's movie still represents a triumph of escapism over spirituality.

DVD Releases November 16 2010

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Movie & TV DVD Releases this week. November 16 2010

Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore
Directed by Brad Peyton
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A definite improvement over the original 2001 Cats & Dogs, Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore is a brand-new story about an underground world of animal intelligence, featuring cat spy agency M.E.O.W.S., a dog intelligence agency, and even a pigeon. They find themselves in the unlikely position of joining forces against renegade M.E.O.W.S. agent Kitty Galore as she seeks revenge against dogs and humans in a plan that will destroy the human race and allow her to rule the world. This 3-D film is a blend of live action, puppetry, and animation, and the combination of better writing and a cast of talented voice artists makes the animal spies in this sequel much more believable than in the previous film. Kitty Galore is unlikable to the core and Bette Midler is absolutely perfect in the role. Neil Patrick Harris is highly effective as Lou, head of the dog agency; James Marsden plays the conflicted police-dog-turned-new-recruit Diggs; Nick Nolte plays fellow canine agent Butch; Christina Applegate is M.E.O.W.S. agent Catherine; and Katt Williams as Seamus does a great pigeon. The unlikely cooperation between canine, feline, and bird leads to an action-adventure that takes the agents from dark back alleys to a cat house run by a cat lady pushing catnip and even a local carnival. The action scenes will hold the interest of most children ages 6 to 12, though many of the adults in the crowd may find them rather on the slow side, and kids and adults alike will chuckle at the silly jokes and slapstick comedy that pop up throughout the film. A notable laugh for the adults in the audience comes in an extended scene that clearly invokes Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. Add in a robot cat, some silly magician tricks--including Kitty Galore zipped into a rabbit suit--a squirrel robot that self-destructs after a quick dance, and the requisite 3-D effects and you've got a perfectly adequate action comedy that kids will enjoy and their parents can stomach without too much complaining.

DVD Releases October 26 2010

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Movie & TV DVD Releases this week. October 26 2010

Sex and the City 2
Directed by Michael Patrick King
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The four glitziest ladies ever to hit Manhattan as a single force--Carrie, Samantha, Miranda, and Charlotte--are back, fabulous as ever, in Sex and the City 2. They may be older, and even a little wiser, but the pulls of love, lust, careers, and a pair of well-turned stilettos are still the focus of this Fab Four. As the women gamely face the prospect of aging--children, menopause, glass ceilings, and, in Carrie's opinion a fate worse than death--domesticity--they still manage to sparkle with the banter and great outfits that made the HBO series and the first film such hits. Sex and the City 2 opens with Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Samantha (Kim Cattrall), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), and Charlotte (Kristin Davis) at the wedding of two of the foursome's favorite gay male friends, Stanford (Willie Garson) and Anthony (Mario Cantone). The wedding itself pulls out all the stops--in the true spirit of Sex and the City--and is one of the highlights of the film. From the no-holds-barred décor, including live swans, to the gay men's chorus singing show tunes while the guests arrive, the event is on the far side of over the top. As the guests settle into their seats, Miranda whispers, "Could this wedding be any gayer?" and as if on command, out comes Liza Minnelli, playing herself, to officiate. (Minnelli's performance is unexpectedly splendid, and her "wedding song" will wow all her fans--gay, straight, married, single.) Yet beneath the luscious glamour and the really bad hats (oh, Carrie, you should have resisted that harlequin feathered crown), the heroines are struggling with the not-so-glamorous realities of their lives. Charlotte and Harry (the always delightful and dependable Evan Handler) have two demanding young daughters--and a nanny from Ireland whose braless voluptuousness puts new meaning in the phrase "Irish spring," and who may be threatening their marriage. Miranda, ever the focused career gal, is getting nowhere fast at her law firm. And Carrie, now married to Mr. Big (Chris Noth), is chafing at the cozy staying-in and lying-low that she thinks spell death to romance. (It should be noted that vixen Samantha is still game for walking on the wild side. At the wedding she meets a handsome straight guy and asks him what he does for a living. "I lay concrete," he says. Samantha: "That sounds promising.") And for once there are no easy, glib answers to the real-life problem of the four stars, and Sex and the City 2 lets the characters actually grow up, at least a little. Which doesn't mean their fashions aren't fabulous. The film is also chock-a-block with great cameos, including Miley Cyrus, Project Runway's Tim Gunn, and Penélope Cruz. And longtime fans of the TV series will be happy to hear that Smith Jerrod (Jason Lewis), Samantha's onetime flame, and Aidan (John Corbett), who once stole Carrie's heart, also make appearances. Sex and the City 2 is frothier than a shaken bottle of Champagne, and goes down as smoothly as a couple of appletinis. So fans, drink up!

DVD Releases October 12 2010

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Movie & TV DVD Releases this week. October 12 2010

Jonah Hex
From Warner Home Video
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Another DC Comics hero gets a workout in Jonah Hex, the movie incarnation of DC's scar-faced bounty hunter, played here by Josh Brolin. Out to exact revenge on the varmint who wrecked his face and killed his family, Jonah also gets yanked back into the service of his country--against his will, of course. Said varmint, Quentin Turnbull, is played by John Malkovich, although the more spirited villainy is provided by Turnbull's tattooed Irish assistant (Inglourious Basterds's Michael Fassbender plays the part with the kind of energy noticeably absent from the other cast members). In this 80-minute hodgepodge of a movie, Jonah regularly checks in with his lady friend, a prostitute (Megan Fox) whose bordello room has a remarkable amount of glamour lighting, and in his spare time investigates Turnbull's plot to use a super weapon against Washington, D.C. By giving Jonah a halfway-interesting supernatural talent--he can talk with the dead, by placing his hands on them--the film adds a kicky new wrinkle, but it's not enough to improve the mangled storytelling or the sleepwalking pace. Brolin's makeup is impressive, but in scarring his cheek and pulling his mouth back in a grotesque grimace, the prosthetics designers have robbed the actor of any ability to express himself through speech. Kind of a miscalculation there, and typical of this movie's tendency to shoot itself in the face.
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DVD Releases September 21 2010

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Movie & TV DVD Releases this week. September 21 2010

Ondine
From MAGNOLIA FILMS
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Colin Farrell shows his soulful side in Ondine, a lovely Irish drama from director Neil Jordan (The Crying Game, Breakfast on Pluto). Syracuse (Farrell), a down-on-his-luck fisherman called Circus by friends and foes alike due to his formerly boozy ways, pulls up his net one morning to find a beautiful, near-drowned woman in it. She calls herself Ondine (Polish actress Alicja Bachleda) and Syracuse's daughter Annie (charming newcomer Alison Barry) thinks she's a selkie (a seal that's taken human form and can grant wishes). Ondine is happy to feed Annie's fantasies, and Syracuse is pretty convinced himself--but things take a dark turn as Annie's illness and Ondine's past intrude on this sweet fantasy. Ondine has a different feel than typical Hollywood fare; events that in most movies would be hyped and emphasized (such as a plot-turning car crash) here pass with jolting swiftness. Instead, Ondine lingers on the interplay between a sad father and a yearning daughter, between a lonely man and a lost woman. The movie builds a rich and deeply felt web of relationships--when the story takes hold, you'll be all the more gripped as a result. Featuring a delightful comic turn by Stephen Rea (V for Vendetta) as a skeptical priest.

DVD Releases September 14 2010

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Movie & TV DVD Releases this week. September 14 2010

Just Wright
Directed by Sanaa Hamri
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If you've ever doubted that Queen Latifah is a movie star, watch Just Wright. It's not that Just Wright is a great movie--it isn't. It's a perfectly capable romantic comedy with some lovely touches and some typical clichés. The plot--physical therapist Leslie Wright (Latifah) becomes the personal therapist to basketball star Scott McKnight (rapper Common) after a devastating injury, and gradually, love blossoms--isn't really the point. What makes the movie work are little moments of pain and pleasure, such as the flicker of betrayal when Leslie watches her mother give a pair of heirloom earrings to Leslie's prettier childhood pal, Morgan (Paula Patton, Precious), or the hesitation, followed by a leap, when Leslie and Scott have their first kiss. Director Sanaa Hamri, who also made the unjustly ignored interracial romance Something New, has an excellent eye for the details of how people interact; she never forgets that people rarely know what they're going to do until they actually do it, so her movies are in a constant state of discovery. She draws a new vulnerability out of Queen Latifah, who usually coasts on a sassy, breezy confidence. Just Wright is about a woman who's quietly endured a thousand indignities and tries not to let her unhappiness show--which is what makes it so engaging. This sort of performance doesn't win awards, but it makes this sort of movie an unexpected pleasure.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Directed by Mike Newell
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Jake Gyllenhaal's doe eyes and bulging biceps will make some hearts flutter in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Dastan (Gyllenhaal), adopted prince of the Persian empire, must flee into the desert when accused of murdering his royal father--but a glass-handled dagger he found as loot from a captured city turns out to hold powerful time-manipulating magic. Not only is he pursued by his vengeful brothers, his scheming uncle (Ben Kingsley, Sexy Beast), and a strange cabal of assassins, but a princess/priestess named Tamina (Gemma Arterton, Quantum of Solace) wants the dagger back and will kill Dastan if she has to. Prince of Persia wants to be a rollicking adventure along the lines of Pirates of the Caribbean. Unfortunately, it's hampered by clumsy dialogue and hard-to-follow action sequences, with choppy editing that wrecks the flow of the parkour-inspired stunts. But the production design is extravagant and every time Alfred Molina (Spiderman 2) appears as a greedy sheik the movie gets a delightful jolt of energy. Gyllenhaal doesn't have much to work with--Dastan is a fairly generic hero--and whoever designed his hair should have been fired on the first day, but his lazy charm comes through and carries him through the movie.

Letters to Juliet
Directed by Gary Winick
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Letters to Juliet succeeds in being just what it's meant to be, a feel-good romantic comedy about love lost and love found, in which love triumphs in the face of cynicism. Inspired by the book of the same name, and filmed against the beautiful backdrop of Verona, Italy, the movie tells the story of how troubled young women seek advice from Shakespeare's Juliet by leaving letters tacked to a wall, where they are carefully answered by Juliet's self-appointed "secretaries." One such note is found 50 years later by Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), a young American woman who is soon to be married and who yearns to become a writer. Her heartfelt answer to the letter serves as a catalyst for an epic romantic journey that will span continents and generations. The success of the film lies in the powerful interaction between the wistfully romantic and fully mature author of the letter, Claire (Vanessa Redgrave); the romantically idealistic Sophie; and Claire's overly pragmatic, downright cynical grandson Charlie (Christopher Egan), who grudgingly accompanies his grandmother on what he deems an insane quest to Verona to find her long lost love, Lorenzo. The filmmakers, writers, and actors all capitalize well on the comic possibilities of the situation, and there are more than a few good chuckles to be had at the absurdity of the interactions between these three very different characters, as they experience everything from hope and longing to disappointment and unexpected fulfillment. In the end, each character grows and changes profoundly as a result of their shared journey. Sure, the events portrayed in the film are highly unrealistic, but that doesn't change the fact that the film speaks to that innermost part of us all that, despite all logic, makes us want to believe that true love really does exist and that it just might triumph in the end.

Princess Kaiulani
Directed by Marc Forby
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Princess Kaiulani is a moving film that's part romantic epic, part historical period piece. But mostly it's a portrait of how a frightened young girl grew into an extraordinary woman. The film begins in 1889, when civil unrest unseated Hawaii's royal family and the Hawaiian people began a struggle to maintain their independence and right of self-governance, and when the 13-year-old princess Ka'iulani (Q'orianka Kilcher), who was next in line for the Hawaiian throne, was exiled to England to ensure her safety. Shot on location in both England and Hawaii by indie director Marc Forby, this breathtakingly beautiful film follows Ka'iulani as she is plopped down in a foreign world that looks upon Hawaiians as barbarians and where her royal heritage counts for virtually nothing. Princess Ka'iulani, or "Victoria," as the English often call her, endures harsh treatment at the hands of both teachers and students at boarding school, but she refuses to crumble, carrying on with a strength and quiet resolve that's powerfully portrayed by Kilcher. As Ka'iulani matures, she falls in love with Englishman Clive Davies (Shaun Evans) and becomes engaged. Just as Ka'iulani's happiness seems assured, her father visits her in England, bringing with him serious news: her uncle, King Kalakaua (Ocean Kaowili), has died unexpectedly after having been forced to adopt a constitution in conflict with the best interests of the Hawaiian people, and Ka'iulani's aunt Liliu'okalani (Leo Anderson Akana), who ascended to the throne, has subsequently been put under house arrest and removed from power. Incensed by the grave injustices inflicted upon her people, Princess Ka'iulani is propelled by her inherent sense of duty to sacrifice her own potential happiness. She journeys first to America, where she eloquently pleads with outgoing president Grover Cleveland for his help, and later to Hawaii, where she fights for her people's rights in person. Princess Kaiulani is a powerful film, and what comes across so strongly is not just the often-overlooked perspective of the native Hawaiian people regarding America's annexation of Hawaii and the cultural consequences of that annexation, but the truly heroic acts of Hawaii's extraordinary Princess Ka'iulani.

The Twilight Zone: Season 1 [Blu-ray]
From Image Entertainment
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All 36 episodes of the first season of Rod Serling’s classic, groundbreaking series, now presented in pristine high definition for the first time ever!

• Loaded with new and exclusive bonus features not available anywhere else including extremely rare, never-before-released unofficial pilot “The Time Element” written by Rod Serling and hosted by Desi Arnaz – the episode that started a cultural phenomenon – presented in glorious high definition!
• All new 1080p high-definition transfers have been created from the original camera negatives, as well as uncompressed PCM audio, remastered from the original magnetic soundtracks. Season One Episodes: Where Is Everybody?, One for the Angels, Mr. Denton on Doomsday, The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine, Walking Distance, Escape Clause, The Lonely, Time Enough at Last, Perchance to Dream, Judgment Night, And When the Sky Was Opened, What You Need, The Four of Us Are Dying, Third from the Sun, I Shot an Arrow into the Air, The Hitch-Hiker, The Fever, The Last Flight, The Purple Testament, Elegy, Mirror Image, The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street, A World of Difference, Long Live Walter Jameson, People Are Alike All Over, Execution, The Big Tall Wish, A Nice Place to Visit, Nightmare as a Child, A Stop at Willoughby, The Chaser, A Passage for Trumpet, Mr. Bevis, The After Hours, The Mighty Casey, A World of His Own. Season 1 included such stars as Anne Francis, Burgess Meredith (eventual veteran of numerous TZ episodes), Ida Lupino, Jack Klugman, Richard Conte, Gig Young, Nehemiah Persoff, Sebastian Cabot, Claude Akins, Earl Holliman, Roddy McDowall, Kevin McCarthy, Ed Wynn, Murray Hamilton, Vera Miles and Ron Howard, all featured in classic episodes. Before the season had even finished, it was hailed by the critics, named by Daily Variety as "the best that has ever been accomplished in half-hour filmed television,” a new phrase had entered the pop-culture lexicon and its success and impact is still felt today – fifty-one years after its debut.

Seven [Blu-ray Book]
From New Line Home Video
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The most viscerally frightening and disturbing homicidal-maniac picture since The Silence of the Lambs, Seven is based on an idea that's both gruesome and ingenious. A serial killer forces each of his victims to die by acting out one of the seven deadly sins. The murder scene is then artfully arranged into a grotesque tableau, a graphic illustration of each mortal vice. From the jittery opening credits to the horrifying (and seemingly inescapable) concluding twist, director David Fincher immerses us in a murky urban twilight where everything seems to be rotting, rusting, or molding; the air is cold and heavy with dread. Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt are the detectives who skillfully track down the killer--all the while unaware that he has been closing in on them, as well. Gwyneth Paltrow and Kevin Spacey are also featured, but it is director Fincher and the ominous, overwhelmingly oppressive atmosphere of doom that he creates that are the real stars of the film. It's a terrific date movie--for vampires.

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DVD Releases September 7 2010

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Movie & TV DVD Releases this week. September 7 2010

Killers
Directed by Robert Luketic
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Killers has been murdered by most film critics, and the box-office receipts haven't been too impressive either. But that's kind of a bad rap. Granted, it isn't likely to make many year's best (or even month's best) lists, but this is an entertaining little diversion that at the very least offers an appealing cast, a few laughs, and some cool chase scenes. Katherine Heigl plays Jen, who, having recently been dumped by her boyfriend, is vacationing in Nice with her parents (Tom Selleck and Catherine O'Hara). Enter Spencer (Ashton Kutcher), a hired assassin (hey, it's a comedy) who happens to be on the scene for a job. The couple's cutesy flirting turns into a romantic dinner, which leads to some heavy drinking… and before you know it, Spencer has renounced the killing gig, married Jen, and moved back to her hometown in the States, where he becomes a "corporate consultant." Three years later his past catches up to him, as we knew it would, and a seemingly limitless array of hired guns emerges from the woodwork, intent on collecting the $20 million bounty that's been put on Spencer's head. Exactly why this is, and who's responsible for it, are secrets revealed only at the end, although perspicacious viewers will no doubt have seen it coming. In the meantime, Spencer's revelation of who he really is and Jen's reaction to it are mildly reminiscent of the Arnold Schwarzenegger-Jamie Lee Curtis relationship in True Lies, as issues of trust, safety, and Jen's newly discovered pregnancy complicate Spencer's attempts to keep the two of them alive while he tries to figure out what's going on. Director Robert Luketic displays a sure hand during the action sequences, but he's working with a thin script and a pair of attractive young actors whose chemistry doesn't exactly burn up the screen. Those are serious drawbacks, but all in all, there are far worse ways to kill a couple of hours than watching Killers.

DVD Releases August 31 2010

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Movie & TV DVD Releases this week. August 31 2010

Harry Brown
Directed by Daniel Barber
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With its themes of rampant urban decay and crime, mistreatment of the elderly, and vigilantism, Harry Brown will inevitably be compared to earlier movies from Death Wish to Gran Torino. The comparisons are apt, but with the able assistance of Michael Caine in the title role, director Daniel Barber and screenwriter Gary Young's tale stands on its own, grimly but compellingly. Caine's Harry Brown, a retiree and former marine, lives alone in a flat in a decrepit London council estate, spending his time visiting his comatose wife in the hospital, playing chess at the local pub with his only friend (David Bradley), and gazing out at the quotidian violence and drug dealing carried out with virtual impunity by the insolent young thugs and lowlifes on the estate grounds. It's a lonely existence that only gets sadder when his wife dies and his pal is murdered; and when the police inform him that nailing those responsible will be next to impossible, Harry turns dirty. His first killing is in self-defense, but once he gets hold of a gun (obtained from a dealer-junkie in a nightmarishly vivid scene), it is on, as our "vigilante pensioner" takes no prisoners in his pursuit of street justice. The cops, who are mostly depicted as clueless and thoroughly inept, assume the local gangs are responsible; only Detective Inspector Alice Frampton (Emily Mortimer), about the only one with a brain and a heart, suspects Harry, and she plays an important role as the film careens towards its operatically brutal climax. The scenes of violence are intense but very well staged, and the film's overall look and downbeat color palette effectively convey the sense of squalid hopelessness permeating this stratum of British existence. Harry Brown isn't a lot of fun, but it will stick with you.

DVD Releases August 17 2010

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The Last Song
Directed by Julie Anne Robinson
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This romantic tearjerker from writer Nicholas Sparks (Dear John, The Notebook) can be formulaic at times, but it stays interesting thanks to pacing and snappy dialogue. Miley Cyrus sulks through The Last Song as troubled teen Ronnie, who resents her father (Greg Kinnear) for divorcing Mom (Kelly Preston) and leaving the family. A piano prodigy, Ronnie refuses to play after her father leaves, and she snubs admission to Julliard. Ronnie and her wisecracking brother Jonah (Bobby Coleman) are sent to spend the summer with their father in a small Georgia beach town. Handsome townie Will (Liam Hemsworth) strikes up a tense relationship with Ronnie and, true to romance formula, they fall in love. Ronnie softens her attitude and the ice between father and daughter begins to melt away. But Dad has a tragic secret, and in the end, music helps Ronnie open her heart and heal. Cyrus gives a predictable performance as the all-attitude Ronnie, but she's helped along by Coleman's cute-little-brother shtick (which can be a bit heavy-handed, but the youngster is a scene-stealer). Veteran actors Preston and Kinnear are one-dimensional, but The Last Song is a harmless teen romance--who's watching the adults, anyway?

DVD Releases August 10 2010

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Date Night
Directed by Shawn Levy
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Tina Fey and Steve Carell are two of the most charming performers in entertainment today. Their goofy attractiveness makes them a perfect couple in Date Night: an unremarkable husband and wife from New Jersey, they get mistaken for crooks in Manhattan, sending them on a wild night replete with snooty wait staff, crooked cops, glitter-specked strippers, a shirtless superspy (Mark Wahlberg, as buff as ever), and a preposterous car chase. The movie makes no effort to be remotely plausible and the last third really goes off the rails, and it would probably be better served by less familiar faces in minor roles (bit parts are played by Mark Ruffalo, Kristen Wiig, Common, James Franco, Mila Kunis, William Fichtner, and Ray Liotta). It's disappointing that the dialogue doesn't crackle the way it does on 30 Rock or The Office. But Fey and Carell carry the movie along through sheer nerdy pluck. Rarely does a couple in a movie seem genuinely devoted to each other, not out of wild passion, but for all the things that a real marriage is built on: patience, shared humor, a willingness to deal with day-to-day annoyances, and simple affection. Fey and Carell seem like a couple you'd actually enjoy going out to dinner with. In today's world, that's more romantic than sunsets and bouquets of roses.

DVD Releases August 3 2010

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The Ghost Writer
Directed by Roman Polanski
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Oscar-winning director Roman Polanksi (The Pianist) teams up with author-screenwriter Robert Harris (Enigma) for this twisty political thriller. Ewan McGregor plays an unnamed ghostwriter who signs on to pen the memoirs of former British prime minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan). The money is good, but there's a catch: the ghost's predecessor perished under mysterious circumstances (his body washed up on the shore in an apparent suicide). Being the adventurous sort, the ghost puts that information aside and travels to Lang's austere compound on Martha's Vineyard, where he meets Lang's efficient personal secretary, Amelia (Kim Cattrall, good but for an inconsistent accent), and acerbic wife, Ruth (An Education's Olivia Williams). Just as he's wading through Lang's dull text, the PM's ex-cabinet minister accuses him of handing over suspected terrorists to the CIA, fully aware that torture would be on the agenda. The next thing the ghost knows, he's working for a possible war criminal, and the deeper he digs, the more convinced he becomes that Lang is lying about his past. After exchanging a few words with a sharp-eyed old man (Eli Wallach) and a tight-lipped professor (Tom Wilkinson), he realizes his life may also be at risk. Then, while Lang hits the road to proclaim his innocence, the ghost gets to know Ruth better--much better. If the conclusion feels a little glib, Polanksi tightens the screws with skill, McGregor enjoys his best role in years, and Williams proves she's fully prepared to carry a movie of her own.

Directed by Wislon Yip
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Ip Man (Collector's Edition)

Ip Man Collector's Edition (containing over 2 hours of bonus footage) is an award winning adaptation based on the life of Ip Man (Donnie Yen), the grandmaster of Wing Chun and later teacher and mentor to widely influential and legendary martial artist, Bruce Lee. Ip Man is set in the 1930s in Foshan, a hub of southern Chinese martial arts just as the Second Sino-Japan war breaks out. During the war, China is nearly ripped to pieces by racial hatred, nationalistic strife and warfare. Ip Man rose like a phoenix above these ashes as he defied an empire bringing hope to China. Winner of Best Picture and Actor, Ip Man ranks as one of the best martial arts movies of all time!

DVD Releases July 27 2010

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Clash of the Titans
Directed by Louis Leterrier
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"Release the Kraken!" Ah, it could only be Clash of the Titans, the 2010 remake that retains the instruction to unleash the great beastie from the sea. The 1981 original boasted Ray Harryhausen's legendary stop-motion technique of animating various mythological creatures--it was his final feature project--and given the cornball approach of the movie in general, that was the main draw. The remake supplies new state-of-the-art special effects (released in 3-D) and a nicely muscular sense of momentum. Sam Worthington (the Avatar guy) plays Perseus, a demigod who doesn't know that Zeus (Liam Neeson) is his father. Perseus is selected to lead an expedition to find and slay the Medusa, lest Zeus's evil brother Hades (Ralph Fiennes, in fine slinking mode) rain down misery upon a seaport--and you just know that means the Kraken is coming. Ye gods, it's a mess, and we haven't even mentioned the witches and the harpies and the giant scorpions. But if we did, it would be clear that Clash of the Titans is a perfectly dandy popcorn epic, unpretentious and punchy. Director Louis Leterrier (Transporter 2) gets a fine rhythm going during Perseus's trek, and you can even forgive the hokey shafts-of-light-through-clouds look of Olympus. Leterrier also had the good sense to import the marvelous Danish star Mads Mikkelsen to provide mentoring duties to Perseus; Gemma Arterton and Alexa Davalos fulfill the eye-candy roles. It's up to individual viewers to choose which they prefer--Harryhausen's magically hand-wrought creations (his Medusa sequence is an absolute killer) or the 21st century's slick computer-generated variations. But nostalgia aside, it would be hard to deny that this is one case where the remake tops the original.

DVD Releases July 20 2010

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Cop Out
Directed by Kevin Smith
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Fan-favorite filmmaker Kevin Smith (Clerks, Chasing Amy) directs the first movie he didn't write himself: Cop Out, starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan (30 Rock) as mismatched cops. When a bust goes wrong, they get suspended, forcing Willis to sell a treasured baseball card in order to pay for his daughter's wedding. But while selling the card, it gets stolen, sending the pair on a wild chase featuring a parkour-loving housebreaker, a hot Latina trapped in the trunk of a Mercedes-Benz, a 10-year-old car thief, and a lot of other goofiness. It's hard to believe that Smith didn't have a hand in the writing, as the comedy has all of his loose, ramshackle habits (and his reliance on jokes about poop and male genitalia)--though much of it also has the feel of being improvised by Willis and Morgan. Cop Out wants to mock buddy-cop movies, but it also wants to be a buddy-cop movie; these conflicting impulses are never harmonized, so the whole movie feels out of tune. The star-studded supporting cast includes Jason Lee, Michelle Trachtenberg, Seann William Scott, Fred Armisen, Kevin Pollak, Adam Brody, Rashida Jones, and Susie Essman.

DVD Releases July 13 2010

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The Bounty Hunter
Directed by Andy Tennant
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In the bouncy romantic comedy The Bounty Hunter, Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler aim to be a contemporary Nick and Nora for an audience that's never even heard of The Thin Man. Ex-cop-turned-bounty hunter Milo Boyd (Butler, 300) is ecstatic when he gets his new assignment: his ex-wife, reporter Nicole Hurley (Aniston), has skipped bail to pursue a breaking story. Naturally, when he catches her, he also gets caught up in the mystery--though the mystery is really just an excuse for quirky comic bickering between the estranged lovebirds. Refreshingly, the script has the kind of off-beat rhythms and flavors of comedy-action flicks like Midnight Run, Out of Sight, and Something Wild, and the supporting cast (featuring Christine Baranski, Mamma Mia!; Peter Greene, Pulp Fiction; Jeff Garlin, Curb Your Enthusiasm; Siobhan Fallon, Saturday Night Live; Cathy Moriarty, Raging Bull; and beloved character actress Carol Kane) is a colorful collection of great faces and pungent personalities. It's unfortunate that the leads are a tad bland; Aniston and Butler aren't bad, but they don't have the snap, crackle, and pop that the movie craves. Nonetheless, The Bounty Hunter rises above the average Hollywood rom-com.

DVD Releases July 6 2010

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The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Directed by Niels Arden Oplev
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Fans of Stieg Larsson's Men Who Hate Women may have been concerned about how the Swedish author's novel would translate to the screen, but they needn't have worried. Significant changes to the source material have been made, but director Niels Arden Opley's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, as it's now called, is mostly riveting. As the story begins, middle-aged investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) has just been convicted of a bogus charge of libel against a rich and corrupt corporate hotshot when he's unexpectedly offered a most unusual gig. An aging captain of industry named Henrik Vanger (Sven-Bertil Taube) wants Blomkvist to figure out what happened to Vanger's niece, who disappeared more than 40 years earlier; not only is the old man convinced that she was murdered, but he suspects that another member of his large and rather disagreeable family (which includes several former Nazis) is the culprit. Blomkvist takes the job, which includes spending at least six months on Vanger's isolated island in the middle of winter. But what he doesn't know is that he's being spied on by twentysomething Lisbeth Salander (brilliantly played by Noomi Rapace in a career-making performance), the titular Girl and the possessor of remarkable skills as a sleuth and computer hacker. With her gothlike piercings and all-black clothes, Lisbeth is a vivid character, to say the least. While we don't exactly know the details of her dark past, it's obviously still with her; indeed, she's just been assigned a new "guardian" (like a parole officer) to look after her finances and other matters. We also know that she is not someone to mess with; when the guardian turns out to be a thoroughly vile monster, Lisbeth gets back at him in one of the more satisfying revenge sequences in recent memory. That Lisbeth and Mikael should end up working together, and more, isn't especially surprising. But the horrifying details and depths of depravity they uncover while working on the case (parallels to The Silence of the Lambs are facile but appropriate) definitely are, and Opley does a nice job of keeping it all straight. At more than two and a half hours, the film is long, with its share of grim, graphic, and scary moments, but The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a winner

DVD Releases June 29 2010

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From Jim Henson Company
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Fraggle Rock: Complete Series Collection

Celebrate the FRAGGLE ROCK series with the stories, music and memories that have kept fans rockin’ in the ultimate FRAGGLE ROCK COMPLETE SERIES COLLECTION! Starring all your favorite Jim Henson characters — Red, Mokey, Wembley, Gobo, and Boober — joined by tiny diligent Doozers and giant Gorgs in one fantastical subterranean world that was awarded five International Emmy® Awards and has continued to be adored by millions of fans worldwide! Dance your cares away with the fully loaded collectible set containing all 96 episodes and 100 original songs of the award-winning series! The Complete Series Collection is a fan favorite with over 47 hours of content on an impressive 20 discs, including over eight hours of bonus features. So save your worries for another day and let the Fraggles take you to a place far away....

DVD Releases June 22 2010

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Movie & TV DVD Releases this week. June 22 2010

The Last Station

Helen Mirren, Christopher Plummer, and James McAvoy lead an impeccable cast in The Last Station, a sweet comedy-drama about the final days of the Russian novelist Tolstoy. Nineteenth-century paparazzi lurk outside of Tolstoy's estate, hoping to snatch a picture of the rumored strife between the world-famous writer (Plummer, The Insider), who's launched an antimaterialist movement, and his aristocratic wife, Sofya (Mirren, The Queen). Also lurking is Tolstoy's aide, Chertkov (Paul Giamatti, Sideways), who despises Sofya and pushes to change Tolstoy's will to prevent Sofya from inheriting the royalties from Tolstoy's books. Into this nest of conflict comes a young secretary, Valentin (McAvoy, Atonement), who idolizes Tolstoy and strives to live by the principles of abstinence and vegetarianism… only to find his purity tested by sensual temptations (including a headstrong young woman played by Kerry Condon of Rome) and an unexpected sympathy for Sofya. Moments of sly comedy keep The Last Station from becoming overly literary. The movie as a whole lacks the emotional punch it reaches for, but every scene is a polished jewel, expertly and passionately crafted by the actors and writer-director Michael Hoffman (A Midsummer Night's Dream), rich with feeling and social detail. Mirren, of course, is superb, with a wonderful portrayal of a woman who can't help turning her genuine passions into a performance that repels her husband. --Bret Fetzer

Remember Me

Rebel Without a Cause meets Ordinary People in postmillennial Manhattan, resulting in Hollywoodland director Allen Coulter's Remember Me. Twilight's tousle-haired Robert Pattinson plays Tyler, a chain-smoking New York University student with a substantial chip on his shoulder. Drifting through life devoid of ambition, he lost his older brother to suicide, his parents are divorced, and his father, Charles (Pierce Brosnan), spends more time in the boardroom than with his kids (Lena Olin plays Tyler's mother). Tyler takes refuge in his friendships with wisecracking roommate Aidan (Tate Ellington) and artistic younger sister Caroline (Ruby Jerins). One night, he and Aidan enter a scuffle outside a club, and Sergeant Craig (Chris Cooper) takes him in for mouthing off, even though he was trying to break things up. When Aidan discovers that they go to school with Craig's daughter, Ally (Lost's Emilie de Ravin), he dares his pal to date and dump the Queens coed to get back at Craig. Game for anything, Tyler gives it a try, and Ally takes the bait, but he puts all thoughts of revenge aside when he finds himself falling in love. Ten years before, Ally lost her mother (Martha Plimpton in an unbilled cameo), and she understands him better than most anyone else, but the timing is off, and the events of 9/11 will change the lives of both families forever. The descent toward melodrama at the end threatens to derail Coulter's delicate project, but he sets things right in time to make Remember Me an affecting experience. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

She's Out of My League

A gorgeous girl takes an interest in an ordinary guy in She's Out of My League, only to find their relationship questioned, criticized, and outright scoffed at by their friends and families. When airport security guard Kirk (Jay Baruchel, best known from supporting roles in Knocked Up and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist) recovers the cell phone of knockout Molly (Alice Eve, Crossing Over), she asks him out to a hockey game as thanks. When a romance blossoms, Kirk is amazed--but not half as amazed as his buddies, who explain at length why Kirk is inferior in every way to this "perfect girl." This emphasis on the social ripples of the romance separates She's Out of My League from the usual average-guy-beautiful-girl romance; the web of admiration, envy, insecurity, and social anxiety is the real topic of the movie, not bland morals like "love is blind" or "true beauty is within." Well, that and a lot of embarrassing comic bits involving shaving, premature ejaculation, and more--some bits wouldn't be out of place in There's Something About Mary. It's not a great movie (Molly's role is underdeveloped, though not as badly here as in most boy-centered sex comedies), but Baruchel's puppy-dog charm, the better-than-average dialogue, and a strong supporting cast (particularly T.J. Miller, Cloverfield, and Krysten Ritter, Confessions of a Shopaholic) lift She's Out of My League above the ordinary. --Bret Fetzer

Green Zone

Matt Damon reteams with his Bourne Supremacy director to create a thriller grounded in contemporary politics: the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Damon) travels across war-torn Iraq, pursuing the intelligence he's been given, but every site indicated comes up empty of WMDs. Investigating the source of the intelligence, he finds himself caught between CIA agent Martin Brown (Brendan Gleeson, 28 Days Later) and politician Clark Poundstone (Greg Kinnear, Little Miss Sunshine) over the identity of "Magellan," the supposed source. As Miller tracks down an Iraqi general, he ends up further and further afield, facing danger from all sides. It's hard to say which is the greater accomplishment--that Green Zone manages to turn a still-volatile political issue into a propulsive action movie, or that it manages to depict Iraqi people as individuals with a wide range of responses to what's happened to their country. Damon's performance is low-key but effective as Miller tries to maintain some semblance of moral clarity in a circumstance that muddies everything. Also featuring Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone) as a compromised journalist and Khalid Abdalla (The Kite Runner) as an Iraqi civilian who gets dragged into far more than he expected. --Bret Fetzer

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