Thursday, August 22, 2013

New This Week (8/22/13)


Bullet to the Head (R)
Sylvester Stallone gives a powerful performance in this “lean and mean” (The Hollywood Reporter) white=knuckle thrill-ride.  When the partner of aging New Orleans hit man Jimmy Bonomo (Stallone) is murdered, Bonomo vows to take down those responsible.  He teams up with a young D.C. cop (Sung Kang) and the unlikely partners are drawn into a tense, dangerous cat-and-mouse game with a ruthless “businessman” (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje).

Graceland (2012) (Not Rated) (Tagalong)
Family man Marlon Villar - a longtime chauffeur to corrupt Filipino politician Manuel Chango - is faced with an unthinkable predicament when he is ambushed while driving both his boss's and his own daughter home from school one afternoon. In the chaos of the kidnapping attempt, things go horribly awry and Marlon's daughter is taken and held for ransom instead. Desperate to save his daughter, Marlon must navigate the conflicting motives between the ruthless kidnappers, untrustworthy Chango and determined detectives eager to name him a suspect without letting on the wrong girl was taken hostage. As events spin wildly out of control, Marlon, Chango and their families are forced into a rapid downward spiral of deceit and betrayal that will leave no one innocent.

Kon Tiki (PG-13) (Norwegian)
The Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl crossed the Pacific ocean in a balsa wood raft in 1947, together with five men, to prove that South Americans already back in pre-Columbian times could have crossed the sea and settle on Polynesian islands. After financing the trips with loans and donations they set off on an epic 101 days long trip across 8000 kilometers, while the world was waiting for the result of the trip. The film tells about the origin of the idea, the preparations and the events on the trip. Kon-Tiki was named after the Inca sun god, Viracocha, and "Kon-Tiki" is an old name for this god. Heyerdahl filmed the expedition, which later became the Acaemy award winning documentary in 1951, and wrote a book about the expedition which was translated into 70 languages and sold more than 50 millions copies around the world. Heyerdahl believed that people from South America could have settled Polynesia in pre-Columbian times, although most anthropologists now believe they did not. ...

Midsomer Murders – Set 22 (Not Rated)
The cozy villages of Midsomer County reveal their most sinister secrets in these contemporary British television mysteries. Inspired by the novels of Caroline Graham, modern master of the English village mystery, the series stars Neil Dudgeon (Life of Riley) as the capable Detective Chief Inspector John Barnaby, with Jason Hughes (This Life) as his earnest, efficient partner, Detective Sergeant Ben Jones. Guest stars include Warren Clarke, Joanna David, Genevieve O’Reilly, and James Dreyfus.

THE MYSTERIES
The Sleeper under the Hill—Barnaby and Jones investigate a group of Druids in Midsomer Mow.
The Night of the Stag—Local bootleggers come under suspicion after the disappearance of a government inspector.
A Sacred Trust—Vandalism and violence send shock waves through Midsomer’s cloistered nunnery.
A Rare Bird—The detectives investigate whether competition between ornithology enthusiasts led to murder.

Pain & Gain (R)
Based on the true story of Daniel Lugo (Mark Wahlberg) a Miami bodybuilder who wants to live the American dream. He would like to have the money that other people have. So he enlists the help of fellow bodybuilder Adrian Doorbal (Anthony Mackie) and ex-convict, Christian bodybuilder Paul Doyle (Dwayne Johnson). Their kidnapping and extortion scheme goes terribly wrong since they have muscles for brains and they're left to haphazardly try to hold onto the elusive American dream.

To The Wonder (R)
Neil (Ben Affleck) is an American traveling in Europe who meets and falls in love with Marina (Olga Kurylenko), an Ukrainian divorcée who is raising her 10-year-old daughter Tatiana in Paris. The lovers travel to Mont St. Michel, the island abbey off the coast of Normandy, basking in the wonder of their newfound romance. Neil makes a commitment to Marina, inviting her to relocate to his native Oklahoma with Tatiana. He takes a job as an environmental inspector and Marina settles into her new life in America with passion and vigor. After a holding pattern, their relationship cools. Marina finds solace in the company of another exile, the Catholic priest Father Quintana (Javier Bardem), who is undergoing a crisis of faith. Work pressures and increasing doubt pull Neil further apart from Marina, who returns to France with Tatiana when her visa expires. Neil reconnects with Jane (Rachel McAdams), an old flame. They fall in love until Neil learns that Marina has fallen on hard times. ...

Thursday, August 15, 2013

New This Week (8/15/13)


The Company You Keep (R)
After years in hiding, ex-Weather Underground militant, Nick Sloan aka Jim Grant, learns about his old compatriot's arrest for a bank robbery turned deadly in the 1970s, which he is wanted as an accomplice. This puts the ambitious young local reporter, Ben Shepard, on the scent of a story that exposes Nick as well. As such, Nick goes on the run while taking his daughter to safety. With that accomplished, Nick stays one step ahead of the FBI while pursuing a faint hope to clear his name. Meanwhile, Shepard digs deeper into the case himself as he discovers the true complexities of another times' determined ideals even as Nick faces their consequences with another.
Into The White (R)
In World War II, the German pilots Lieutenant Horst Schopis, Josef Schwartz and Wolfgang Strunk crash their airplane in the wilderness of Norway after shooting down a British airplane. They walk through a snow storm until they reach shelter in an abandoned hunter cabin. Soon the British pilot Captain Charles P. Davenport and the gunner Robert Smith arrive in the cabin and they become prisoners of the German pilots. However, after the initial friction between the enemies, they realize that they should team-up to survive in the wilderness in the beginning of an improbable friendship.
The Other Son (NR) (French)
Two young men, one Israeli and one Palestinian, discover they were accidentally switched at birth.
Sharpe’s Challenge (NR)
Sean Bean is back as the swashbuckling hero in Sharpe's Challenge, an action packed mini-series to be shot on location in Rajasthan, India. Two years after the Duke of Wellington crushes Napoleon at Waterloo, dispatches from India tell of a local Maharaja, Khande Rao, who is threatening British interests there. Wellington sends Sharpe to investigate on what turns out to be his most dangerous mission to date. When a beautiful general's daughter is kidnapped by the Indian warlord, the tension mounts, leaving Sharpe no option but to pursue the enemy right into its deadly lair. Deep in the heart of enemy territory he also has to keep at bay the beautiful but scheming Regent, Madhuvanthi, who is out to seduce him. The fate of an Empire and the life of a General's daughter lie in one man's hands.
The Simpsons Movie (PG-13)
Homer adopts a pig who's run away from Krusty Burger after Krusty tried to have him slaughtered, naming the pig "Spider Pig." At the same time, the lake is protected after the audience sink the barge Green Day are on with garbage after they mention the environment. Meanwhile, Spider Pig's waste has filled up a silo in just 2 days, apparently with Homer's help. Homer can't get to the dump quickly so dumps the silo in the lake, polluting it. Russ Cargill, the villainous boss of the EPA, gives Arnold Schwarzenegger 5 options, forcing him to choose 4 (which is, unfortunately, to destroy Springfield) and putting a dome over Springfield to prevent evacuation. Homer, however, has escaped, along with his family. Can he stop the evil Cargill from annihilating his home town, and his family, who have been forced to return to Springfield?

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

New This Week (8/7/13)



Weapons of War: US Navy Carriers (Not Rated)      
This DVD traces the fascinating rise of the biggest warships the world has ever known.  Find out how US air power evolved from early biplanes landing on converted battleships to sophisticated warplanes on enormous modern supercarriers.  Discover everything you need to know about the most powerful and flexible war machines in existence, and why the first question the president is likely to ask in an international crisis is, “Where is the nearest carrier?”
Exile (2011) (Not Rated)
After his successful London career implodes, journalist Tom Ronstadt returns to his hometown in Lancashire for the first time in 18 years and finds his father Sam in the grip of Alzheimer’s.  This once formidable man and Tom’s childhood hero is now being cared for by his younger sister Nancy.  Tom is determined to unravel the mystery that drove him away from home all those years ago, but he becomes increasingly frustrated with his father’s failure to remember.  He persists, unaware that he is unearthing a devastating crime that will reveal secretes he never could have imagined. 
A Mind to Kill (Series 1) (Not Rated)
Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Noel Bain, a man who looks back fondly to the days when policing involved chasing villains, playing rugby and drinking beer. However, he has come to realise that contemporary policing imposes dilemmas that no training manual could ever anticipate. He is a man out of time and seeks to protect the old way of life, and what he believes are important traditional values.
MI-5/Spooks (Series 6) (Not Rated)
The primary storyline of Series 6 follows Iran seeking the ability to manufacture its own nuclear weapons and searching for sellers of nuclear armaments components. The governments of several nations (principally the United States and its CIA, Russia's FSB, and a shadowy third organisation composed of disenfranchised members of other agencies, including MI5) are woven throughout the plot. Simon Abkarian plays the Iranian Special Counsel liaising with the various governments, Agni Scott as his wife, Matthew Marsh as the CIA station chief, and Robert Glenister as the British Home Secretary, all have recurring roles throughout the series.
Special Branch (1969-74) (Not Rated)
This gritty, realistic police procedural focuses on the Special Branch of London’s Metropolitan Police-a force dedicated to stopping terrorist activities and countering espionage in the nation’s capital.  With an exceptional cast that includes George Sewell, Patrick Mower, and Richard Leech, Special Branch is a suspenseful ride through the underbelly of Britain’s international affairs. 
Vera (Not Rated)
The central character is Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope. Who is obsessive about her work and driven by her own demons. If she's lonely she doesn't show it and faces the world with caustic wit, guile and courage. Her trusted and long suffering colleague is Sergeant Joe Ashworth. Together they approach every new case with unparalleled gusto and professionalism.
Wycliffe (Series 1) (Not Rated)
When murder strikes in Cornwall, Detective Superintendant Wycliffe is there to solve it.  Always calm, but serious, the quick-thinking detective works tirelessly, his mind piecing together each crime with breakneck speed and dead-on accuracy.  He can spot a liar at a glance and no suspect is spared his ruthless interrogation.  Each time Wycliffe and his team of investigators  arrive on the scene, the drama unfolds and suspense heightens as they close in on the guilty and swiftly become a killer’s worst nightmare. 
The Wyvern Mystery (Not Rated)
After precipitating the death of a tenant with whom he has been feuding, Squire Fairfield brings the dead man's young daughter to live in Wyvern Manor. Alice grows up thinking the squire is her kind benefactor, and falls in love with one of his two sons. When the squire makes his romantic intentions known to Alice, she and Charles elope, incurring the wrath of his father. They avoid the squire by living in an outlying estate where their baby is born. Charles is attacked by a mysterious woman who literally comes out of the woodwork, and the baby is moved to the home of an acquaintance of Harry, the squire's other son. Alice faces the loss of her child and possible loss of her husband amid the gloomy home she feels trapped in, surrounded by secrets and mysteries and wondering who she can really trust.