DVD Releases October 12 2010

From New DVD Releases October 12 2010 & Buy Cheap New DVD Movies October 12 2010

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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I Am Love
From Magnolia Home Entertainment
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This movie is like eating bonbons in a hothouse. For some films, walking the fine line between sublime and silly becomes an entertainment in itself, and such is the case with I Am Love, Luca Guadagnino's lush drama set within an Italian business dynasty in Milan. We see much of the film from the perspective of an outsider who has nevertheless fitted herself into this aristocratic world for many years: Emma, the Russian-born wife of the textile company's new CEO. She's played by Tilda Swinton, whose customarily penetrating work is enhanced by her speaking Russian and Italian (how does she do it?). The Russian heritage might be a tip-off--Emma could have a touch of Anna Karenina about her--because she embarks on a grand affair with a much younger man. The many levels of melodrama play out against gorgeous exteriors and wildly overdressed interiors, as though Guadagnino looked back through Italian film heritage and decided it was time for someone to out-do the opulent visions of Luchino Visconti. Adding to the strong flavor of high aestheticism is the soundtrack, which uses various excerpts of pieces by the great contemporary composer John Adams, to evocative effect (the opening shots of snowed-over Milan buildings are spellbinding). But let's not forget about the silly: one can concede the movie's usefulness as eye candy while noting that there is something fundamentally pretentious and overheated about it all, a designer's vision of storytelling. I Am Love overshoots the sublime by a wide margin, but it's fun to consume.
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How to Train Your Dragon
Directed by Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders
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A winning mixture of adventure, slapstick comedy, and friendship, How to Train Your Dragon rivals Kung Fu Panda as the most engaging and satisfying film DreamWorks Animation has produced. Hiccup (voice by Jay Baruchel) is a failure as a Viking: skinny, inquisitive, and inventive, he asks questions and tries out unsuccessful contraptions when he's supposed to be fighting the dragons that attack his village. His father, chief Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler), has pretty much given up on his teenage son and apprenticed him to blacksmith Gobber (Craig Ferguson). Worse, Hiccup knows the village loser hasn't a chance of impressing Astrid (America Ferrera), the girl of his dreams and a formidable dragon fighter in her own right. When one of Hiccup's inventions actually works, he hasn't the heart to kill the young dragon he's brought down. He names it Toothless and befriends it, although he's been taught to fear and loathe dragons. Codirectors and cowriters Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, who made Disney's delightful Lilo and Stitch, provide plenty of action, including vertiginous flying sequences, but they balance the pyrotechnics with moments of genuine warmth that make the viewer root for Hiccup's success. Many DreamWorks films get laughs from sitcom one-liners and topical pop culture references; as the humor in Dragon comes from the characters' personalities, it feels less timely and more timeless. Toothless chases the spot of sunlight reflected off Hiccup's hammer like a giant cat with a laser pointer; Hiccup uses his newly found knowledge (and an icky smoked eel) to defeat two small dragons--and impress the other kids. How to Train Your Dragon will be just as enjoyable 10 or 20 years from now as it is today. (Rated PG: suitable for ages 8 and older, violence, some intense action and scary dragons)
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Leaves of Grass
Directed by Tim Blake Nelson
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Leaves of Grass as a title, referring here to both Walt Whitman and marijuana, is indicative of this film's hybridity in regards to genre--half comedy and half brutal crime drama--and tone, which is at once irreverent and highly philosophical. Directed by Tim Blake Nelson, who also costars as the redneck pothead Bolger, Leaves of Grass is about the troubles that follow two identical twins, philosophy professor Bill Kincaid and his marijuana-growing brother Brady, both skillfully played by Edward Norton. When Brady, the man with a criminal mind but an open heart, convinces Bill to return home to their small Oklahoma town, Bill becomes inadvertently embroiled in more than either sibling can handle. While their schemes get complicated, one meets the zany women in their lives, including Daisy (Susan Sarandon), their ex-hippie mom who at a very young age has relinquished herself to a retirement home; Brady's teen sweetheart, Colleen (Melanie Lynskey); and Bill's fling, high school teacher and poet Janet (Keri Russell), who has turned her back on the rigors of New England academic life for one of catfish noodling and Whitman's poetry. Absurd plot lines make up the comedic bulk of this film, ushered along by druggie investor Pug Rothbaum (Richard Dreyfuss), who seems to exist so that clever jokes about Jews populating Tulsa, Oklahoma, can pepper this witty satire. While many shots recall Coen brothers classics like Raising Arizona, Leaves of Grass still manages to distinguish itself from its obvious influences. Hilarious sets and situations, as when Bill stumbles into Brady's black-light-poster-decorated waterbed room, give this film unique style. The strangest aspects of this movie, including its waffling between comedy and drama so that one knows not, at times, when to laugh and when to squirm, become a source of its ambition. Leaves of Grass is also well written and juggles a highly complex, almost slapstick essence with ingenuity.
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Angel: Complete Series
From Ingram Entertainment
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Episodes: City of Lonely Hearts In the Dark I Fall to Pieces Rm w/a Vu Sense and Sensitivity The Bachelor Party I Will Remember You Hero Parting Gifts Somnambulist Expecting I've Got You Under My Skin Prodigal The Ring Eternity Five by Five Sanctuary War Zone Blind Date To Shanshu in L.A. Judgement Are You Now or Have You Ever Been? First Impressions Untouched Dear Boy Guise Will Be Guise Darla The Shroud of Rahmon The Trial Reunion Redefinition Blood Money There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb The Thin Dead Line Reprise Epiphany Disharmony Dead End Belonging Over the Rainbow Through the Looking Glass Happy Anniversary A New World Benediction Billy Birthday Carpe Noctem Couplet Dad Double or Nothing Forgiving Fredless Heartthrob Loyalty Lullaby Offspring Provider Quickening Sleep Tight That Old Gang of Mine That Vision Thing The Price Tomorrow Waiting in the Wings Deep Down Ground State The House Always Wins Slouching Toward Bethlehem Supersymmetry Spin the Bottle Apocalypse Nowish Habeas Corpses Long Day's Journey Awakening Soulless Calvary Salvage Release Orpheus Players Inside Out Shiny Happy People The Magic Bullet Sacrifice Peace Out Home She Hell Bound Unleashed Just Rewards Conviction Soul Purpose Harm's Way Destiny Lineage The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco Life of the Party Damage You're Welcome Why We Fight Smile Time A Hole in the World Shells Underneath Origin Time Bomb The Girl in Question Power Play Not Fade Away
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Older Than America
Directed by Georgina Lightning
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Kill the Indian. Save the Man.
Bradley Cooper (The Hangover, The A-Team) stars in this mystery about a geologist tracking down the epicenter of an earthquake that leads him to an Indian reservation. Actress Georgina Lightning (TV s The West Wing and Walker, Texas Ranger ) makes her co-writing and directing debut with this passion project while also starring alongside Cooper as Rain, a woman beset by troubling visions from the past. Both their journeys lead to an abandoned schoolhouse and shocking secrets secrets that corrupt politicians and businessmen want to pave over. But the spirits won t be silenced. Like the Oscar-nominated Doubt and acclaimed Canadian drama The Boys Of St. Vincent, this powerful film turns a painful chapter of US history into a compelling, piercing drama. The award-winning cast also includes Adam Beach (Flags Of Our Fathers), Chris Mulkey (TV s 24 ) and the great Wes Studio
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