Subscribe.New DVD Releases: Tuesday January 8, 2008
Monday, January 7th, 2008
A good cross-section of movies coming out on DVD this week. Just click on the correponding links to purchase the movie posters:
- 3:10 to Yuma (Action Western) – An update of the 1957 western based on a story by Elmore Leonard, “3:10 to Yuma” pairs two of today’s finest actors, Academy Award winner Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, as an infamous outlaw and the struggling rancher who volunteers to deliver him to justice. A stark parable of good and evil, the film offers a bracingly gritty depiction of life in the mythic Old West, plunging us into a landscape of hastily constructed towns and mean self-interest at the dawning of the transcontinental railroad. “3:10 to Yuma” begins at a gallop and barely lets up, as Mangold combines intense physical action with sharply honed character drama to deliver a supremely satisfying, thoroughly modern entertainment.
Cast: Christian Bale, Russell Crowe, Ben Foster, Gretchen Mol, Peter Fonda; Directed by: James Mangold
- Death Sentence (Action/Thriller/Drama) – Nick (KEVIN BACON) is a mild-mannered executive with a perfect life. One night when Nick is driving Brendan home from a hockey game, he stops for gas. While he is filling up the tank on the family car, Brendan goes inside to get a drink. Moments later, a gang of thugs enter the store in ski masks, armed with various weapons. But it is not your typical convenience store robbery: this is a rite of passage for Joe Darley (MATTHEW O’LEARY), the younger brother of Billy Darley (GARRETT HEDLUND), the ruthless street leader of the gang. After terrorizing and killing the store clerk, they turn their attention to Brendan.
It is at that moment when Nick turns from the pump and looks inside the store, only to witness Joe deliver the fateful blow that ends all of the promise of Brendan’s future, and leaves him lying in a pool of blood as the gang begins to flee. But when Nick runs to help his son, he clashes with Joe and they fall to the ground. Joe is unmasked, and his own future marked.
Cast: Kevin Bacon, Garrett Hedlund, Kelly Preston, Aisha Tyler, John Goodman; Directed by: James Wan
- The Invasion (Sci-Fi/Thriller) – “Don’t fight. All you have to do is nothing. When you wake up you’ll feel exactly the same.”
A massive explosion lights up the skies from Dallas to Washington, DC, shattering the space shuttle Patriot into pieces that rain down across the U.S. The authorities are quick to seize control of the situation, but stories emerge about a strange substance found clinging to the wreckage — something that withstood the extreme cold of space and searing heat of reentry to get here. And the first to come in contact with it are the first to change…
But no one wants to start a panic.
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Jeremy Northam, Jackson Bond, Jeffrey Wright, Veronica Cartwright, Malin Akerman, Q-Tip, Alexis Raben; Directed by: Oliver Hirschbiegel
- Dragon Wars (Fantasy/Action) – Based on a Korean legend. Five hundred years ago in ancient Korea, a baby girl was born with a gift called the Yuh Yi Joo. The Yuh Yi Joo will completely form inside her by the time she turns twenty. An Imoogi who possesses it can transform itself into a dragon. An old monk and his disciple are the only two who believe this legend and try to protect the Yuh Yi Joo bearing girl. Haram, the warrior who is charged with protecting her falls in love with her. Instead of sacrificing her to the Imoogi, the two lovers plunge to their deaths. Jack tells young Ethan that he is the old monk re-incarnated and that Ethan is the warrior. The old man tells Ethan he must find a girl named Sarah, who bears the mark of a dragon on her shoulder. He is to take her to the Grand Cave on her twentieth birthday.
Cast: Jason Behr, Amanda Brooks, Robert Forster; Directed by: Hyung-rae Shim
- Joshua (Thriller/Drama) – JOSHUA is a smart, bone-chilling psychological thriller about an upscale American family faced with an inner source of horror.
In a breathtaking Upper East Side Apartment, the seemingly perfect Manhattan parents, Brad and Abby Cairn (Sam Rockwell and Vera Farmiga), are celebrating the birth of their second child, Lily. Lily is surrounded by love, toys, a doting uncle (Dallas Roberts) and an attentive grandmother (Celia Weston). But she is also surrounded by her 9 year-old brother, Joshua (Jacob Kogan).
Joshua is no ordinary boy.
He’s exceptionally intelligent and frighteningly precocious. He has an angelic politeness and an easy cool that belie his young age. And now, he seems increasingly unhappy with his new life in which his parents dote on Lily while he quietly plays the piano in the corner.
As the mood darkens in the Cairn’s apartment, the veneer of their polished lives begins to crack. Lily cries incessantly and an upstairs renovation drives Abby into what may or may not be a bad case of post-partum psychosis. Stressed to the limit and living on no sleep, Brad and Abby find themselves wrapped up in an escalating chain of domestic terror.
But what is the cause of their torment? Is it all a series of eerie coincidences or are they in the midst of an unimaginably evil mind? And could it be Joshua who, like his Biblical namesake, is bringing the house tumbling down around his family?
Cast: Sam Rockwell, Vera Farmiga, Michael McKean, Jacob Kogan; Directed by: George Ratliff
- Sunshine (Sci-Fi/Thriller) – 16 months ago, I, Robert Capa, and a crew of seven left earth frozen in a solar winter. Our mission: to reignite the sun before it is too late. Welcome to Icarus II.”
Stars do not live forever. In our universe, one star dies every second. The star that keeps our planet alive, the Sun, is a massive nuclear fusion reactor that scientists estimate has enough fuel to burn for another five billion years.
But what if it doesn’t? What will happen to the Earth and to humankind? And could humanity alter the very course of nature if the Sun began to flicker out?
These are the questions that drive the high-tension space thriller SUNSHINE, the new film from acclaimed director Danny Boyle (MILLIONS, 28 DAYS LATER, THE BEACH, TRAINSPOTTING) from a script by novelist/screenwriter Alex Garland (28 DAYS LATER, THE BEACH).
Cast: Rose Byrne, Cliff Curtis, Chris Evans, Troy Garity, Cillian Murphy, Hiroyuki Sanada, Mark Strong, Benedict Wong, Michelle Yeoh; Directed by: Danny Boyle
