Nov 17, 2009

Now available on DVD

BrunoThirst
Wild ChildMy Sister's KeeperStar Trek


November 17, 2009
Bruno 88 min. D-
My Sister's Keeper 106 min.
Star Trek 126 min. A-
Thirst 133 min.
Wild Child 99 min.






Download Wild Child (2009) Movie - DVD Release


Release Date: TBA 2009
On DVD: November 17, 2009
Genre: Comedy
Director: Nick Moore
Writer: Lucy Dahl, Kate Kondell, Daisy Donovan
Cast: Emma Roberts, Natasha Richardson, Shirley Henderson, Alex Pettyfer, Aidan Quinn
Studio: Universal Pictures
Official site: wildchildmovie.net
Running Time: 99 minutes
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for some crude sexual content, language and drinking - all involving teens.

Sixteen-year-old Poppy (Emma Roberts, "Nancy Drew") is a self-obsessed, incorrigible brat who lives a pampered life in her L.A. world. Though she's handed credit cards with unlimited balances and surrounded by countless hangers on, Poppy can't escape the mounting frustration she feels with her family situation. And she makes sure that everyone knows it.

After an over-the-top prank pushes her father (Aidan Quinn) one step too far, Poppy is shipped off to an English boarding school....

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Download Thirst (2009) Movie - DVD Release


Release Date: July 31, 2009 (Limited)
On DVD: November 17, 2009
Genre: Suspense, Horror
Director: Park Chan-wook
Writer: Park Chan-wook
Cast: Song Kang-ho, Shin Ha-kyun, Kim Ok-bi
AKA: Bakjwi
Studio: Focus Features
Official site: thirstmovie.com
Running Time: 133 minutes
MPAA Rating: Rated R for graphic bloody violence, disturbing images, strong sexual content, nudity and language.

A priest becomes a vampire…another man’s wife is coveted…a deadly seduction triggers murder. Thirst is the new film from director Park Chan-wook (Old Boy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance). Already a boxoffice smash in Korea, Thirst was honored with the Prix du Jury [Jury Prize] at the 2009 Cannes International Film Festival.

Continuing his explorations of human existence in extreme circumstances, the director spins a tale that he conceived and then developed over...

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Download Star Trek (2009) Movie - DVD Release


Release Date: May 8, 2009
September 4, 2009 (IMAX)
On DVD: November 17, 2009
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi
Director: J.J. Abrams
Writer: Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci
Cast: Zoe Saldana, Ben Cross, Bruce Greenwood, Simon Pegg, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Winona Ryder, Zoƫ Saldana, Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin, Eric Bana, Leonard Nimoy, Marlene Forte, Jimmy Bennett
AKA: Star Trek 11, Star Trek XI
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Official site: startrekmovie.com
Running Time: 126 minutes
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action and violence and brief sexual content.

The greatest adventure of all time begins with "Star Trek," the incredible story of a young crew's maiden voyage onboard the most advanced starship ever created: the U.S.S. Enterprise. On a journey filled with action, comedy and cosmic peril, the new recruits must find a way to stop an evil being whose mission of vengeance threatens all of mankind.
The fate of the galaxy rests in the hands of bitter rivals. One, James T. Kirk (Chris...

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Download My Sister's Keeper (2009) Movie - DVD Release

My Sister's Keeper

Release Date: June 26, 2009
On DVD: November 17, 2009
Genre: Drama
Director: Nick Cassavetes
Writer: Jeremy Leven
Cast: Cameron Diaz, Alec Baldwin, Abigail Breslin, Jason Patric, Thomas Dekker, Sofia Vassilieva, Joan Cusack
Studio: New Line Cinema
Official site: mysisterskeepermovie.com
Running Time: 106 minutes
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for mature thematic content, some disturbing images, sensuality, language and brief teen drinking.

Based on the novel "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult. Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate - a life and a role that she has never challenged...until...

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Bruno (2009) Movie Review

There are movies that make you laugh, and movies that make you cry in hysterics because what you're watching is so disturbing and foul you can't believe it. These movies take you off guard and hit you in the funny bone just right, offering a new experience based on surprise, shock and amazement. That film was called Borat. A couple years later, we get its de facto sequel Bruno, and you realize everything good about its predecessor has shriveled up and died.

I watched Borat for the second time a month ago, and that should have been an indication. The comedy-documentary was still entertaining, but not nearly as much as I remembered. You knew what was coming and all shock value was gone. The funniest scenes had lost some of their edge, including the naked fight sequence, which was easily the most "I can't believe they did that" moment of Borat.

Still, going into Bruno, I expected that we'd get more outrageous scenes set against a backdrop of real and suspecting people. The movie is about a gay Austrian fashion critic who, after destroying his career in Europe, decides to head to the United States to resurrect himself. Presumably, he would travel around the country flaunting his homosexuality and evoke all kinds of bigoted behavior from unsuspecting people.

Unfortunately, Bruno tries to go bigger and better with this sequel; what results is a complete and utter failure. Bruno is so bad that my friend and I nearly walked out; if it weren't for morbid curiosity to see how bad things could get and the fact the movie is only 80-some minutes long, we would have. I wish we had, because Bruno was a complete waste of time. At least my friend bought the ticket.

There are three key problems with Bruno:

1) So much more of the movie is staged and scripted - or at least obviously staged and scripted - than in Borat. The first act seems almost entirely devoted to story, which is truly unnecessary. It is here where we're greeted to Bruno's sex games with his pygmy boyfriend, his failed attempts to regain his stature, blah blah blah. Much of the second act has a lot of scripted moments as well, as if Sacha Baron Cohen forgot what made Borat so funny. These scenes are so stupid, so pointless, so not funny that by the time you get to any of the good stuff, your brain is fried.

2) The good stuff isn't that good. Watching Bruno undress in front of Presidential candidate Ron Paul is amusing, but not that funny. While Paul's flustered reaction and use of the word "queer" shows uneasiness with gay people, it's not like Cohen was just flirting with him; he quickly turns an awkward situation into a legitimately uncomfortable one. Can you really fault Paul that much? Bruno meets with a pastor who has committed his life to turning gay people straight; amusing, but Bill Maher got a much better reaction out of a similar guy in his film Religulous (also directed by Borat/Bruno director Larry Charles). The bottom line: most of the "real" footage seems like dull afterthoughts that wouldn't have even made the cut in Borat.

3) When there is good stuff, we've already seen it in the previews or at least heard about it in the news. Yes, Paula Abdul seats herself on a chubby Mexican guy who looks like Saddam Hussein. Yes, Cohen takes himself on a camping trip with several Alabama hunters and starts comparing them to the Sex and the City girls ("That is such a Samantha thing to say!"). Yes, he goes on an African-American Christianity talk show to explain how he swapped an iPod for an African baby named O.J. These are funny bits, but we all saw them in the previews. Almost all of the great punch lines in the movie have already been revealed, and so most of the shock value is gone. That's where Borat succeeded and Bruno fails miserably.

Examining these elements together, we see some underlying issues that caused Bruno to be such a disaster. Much of it takes place in Los Angeles apparently, not exactly the homophobic center of the world. It also feels as though Cohen struggled mightily to get enough footage to put the movie together; after Borat, he may be a little too well known to pull off such crazy antics. And lastly, with Bruno, he has shifted the joke from his victims on film to those sitting in the theater stands; though some shock value came at our expense with Borat, the most defendable laughs came when he was making a mockery of real people on screen. In Bruno, Cohen seems desperate to evoke some kind of reaction, so he has filled his film with intentionally shocking moments just for the audience, like the aforementioned sex games with his boyfriend or multiple shots of his penis swinging around like a tennis ball in a sock. These scenes are made for us, but what's the point? Cohen's audiences are the liberal left, the ones who don't care as much about gays and race and stuff like that. We paid to see him make fun of everyone else and expose their deep-rooted bigotries, and not to just see a bunch of cock and balls and uninteresting jokes.

Bruno is shocking, but only in how terrible it is. The movie does pick up in the final act as Cohen dives more into drawing reactions from real people, but you'll have to struggle through nearly an hour of unnecessary setup and flat jokes. Avoid this one at all costs.

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Download Bruno (2009) Movie - DVD


Release Date: July 10, 2009
On DVD: November 17, 2009
Genre: Comedy
Director: Dan Mazer
Writer: Sacha Baron Cohen
Cast: Sacha Baron Cohen, Alice Evans, Trishelle Cannatella, Sandra Seeling, Ben Youcef
Studio: Universal Pictures
Official site: meinspace.com/bruno
Running Time: 88 minutes
MPAA Rating: Rated R for pervasive strong and crude sexual content, graphic nudity and language.

Sacha Baron Cohen's gay Austrian supermodel Bruno comes to the big screen with similar hijinks and celebrity interviews as seen on "Da Ali G Show.".

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Cate Blanchett: I'm Not Cautious With My Career Choices

For the past few years, Cate Blanchett has been busy performing and directing as well as serving as co-artistic director for countless plays in Sydney, Australia -- all while raising three boys with her husband, playwright Andrew Upton. The self-proclaimed "theater geek" is now taking on the challenging role of Blanche DuBois in Tennessee William's 'A Streetcar Named Desire.' Blanchett, 40, opened up to Vogue about her connection to theater and her surprisingly stable family life.

On the importance of theater: "In the wake of everything that's happened in the world in the last eighteen months, we're thinking about what we've lost. So much of the play is about the death of poetry and idealism and hope -- the fine, delicate things in our lives, the intangible, ephemeral things in our lives -- which theater actually represents, doesn't it? It's ephemeral by its very nature. If you're not there, you miss it. It's gone."

On career choices: "I'm not very cautious or careful. It's always been more about having a variety of experiences than any planned trajectory...I think that in a way, projects choose you."

On the stability that staying semi-put and working regular hours has given their three boys: "'There are so few experiences in our manicured, nanny-stated existence that have the quality of circus. Theater still does." And so, when the boys aren't playing with friends, they can usually be found playing backstage. "They're always engaged in the family business, so to speak.'"

On her relationship with her husband: "We do live in each others' pockets a bit, but that feels natural. It doesn't feel cramped in there at all.

Disney's A Christmas Carol Dominates the Box Office

Christmas may have come early for Disney, as their latest flick 'A Christmas Carol' dominated the box office this past weekend. But with the Twilight Saga: New Moon coming out next week, it better get used to life in second place.

Disney's A Christmas Carol brought in $31 million dollars opening weekend, while Michael Jackson's This Is It came in second place with $14 million. Rounding out the top three was The Men Who Stare at Goats, with $13.3 million.

Here are the top ten box office movies from the November 6-8 weekend:

1. Disney's A Christmas Carol: $31 million

2. Michael Jackson's This Is It: $14 million

3. The Men Who Stare at Goats: $13.3 million

4. The Fourth Kind: $12.5 million

5. Paranormal Activity: $8.6 million

6. The Box: $7.85 million

7. Couples Retreat: $6.4 million

8. Law Abiding Citizen: $6.1 million

9. Where the Wild Things Are: $4.2 million

10. Astro Boy: $2.5 million