DVD Releases: April 22, 2008

Charlie Wilson’s War

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Adaptation, Biopic and War

Rating: R

Actors/Actresses: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Shiri Appleby

Synopsis: A stiff drink. A little mascara. A lot of nerve. Who said they couldn’t bring down the Soviet empire. Based on a true story. You think we could make all this up?

“Good-Time Charlie” Wilson, a flawed and fun-loving Congressman from the piney woods of East Texas, deftly operates the levers of power to funnel money and weapons to the Mujahedin of Afghanistan following the Soviet invasion of their country in late 1979. Charlie finds assistance in the oddest of places — a renegade CIA agent whose outsider status and womanizing ways endears him to Wilson; a Houston socialite who leads Wilson to the cause; the willing Pakistani dictator fascinated by the socialite; the Israelis who modify and manufacture Soviet weapons to maintain the wink-and-nudge illusion of American neutrality; and the women — ooh the women.

Based on the story (and the excellent book of the same name) that is so true and engaging that artistic liberties are not needed, even if they are taken in the film.

When the world wasn’t watching, they changed it forever.

One Missed Call

Genre: Horror, Thriller, Suspense, Remake

Rating: PG-13

Actors/Actresses: Edward Burns, Shannyn Sossamon, Ana Claudia Talancon, Ray Wise, Azura Skye

Synopsis: Beth Raymond is traumatized when she witnesses the gruesome deaths of two friends just days apart. Even more disturbing, she knows that both of them had received chilling cell phone messages–actual recordings of their own horrifying last moments. Impossibly, the calls were received days before they died, but each death occurred precisely when and how the messages foretold. The police think Beth is delusional–except for Detective Jack Andrews, whose own sister was killed in a freak accident that bears a strange similarity to the deaths of Beth’s friends. Together, Jack and Beth work feverishly to unravel the mystery behind the ominous calls. But even as they get closer to the truth, Beth’s cell phone begins to ring with an eerie tune, and the readout displays: “One Missed Call.”

The Orphanage

Genre: Art/Foreign, Suspense/Horror and Thriller

Rating: R

Actors/Actresses: Belen Rueda, Fernando Cayo, Roger Princep, Geraldine Chaplin, Montserrat Carulla (II)

Synopsis: Laura spent the happiest years of her childhood growing up in an orphanage by the seaside, cared for by the staff and fellow orphans whom she loved as brothers and sisters. Now, thirty years later, she returns with her husband Carlos and Simon, their 7-year-old son, with a dream of restoring and reopening the long abandoned orphanage as a home for disabled children. The new home and mysterious surroundings awaken Simon’s imagination and the boy starts to spin a web of fantastic tales and not-so-innocent games. As the opening day draws near, tension builds within the family. Carlos remains skeptical, believing that Simon is making everything up in a desperate bid for attention. But Laura slowly becomes convinced that something long-hidden and terrible is lurking in the old house, something waiting to emerge and inflict appalling damage on her family.

The Savages

Genre: Drama

Rating: R

Actors/Actresses: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Laura Linney, Philip Bosco, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Cara Seymour

Synopsis: The last thing the two Savage siblings ever wanted to do was look back at their difficult family history. Having wriggled their way out from beneath their father’s domineering thumb, they are now firmly cocooned in their own complicated lives. Wendy is a struggling East Village playwright, AKA a temp who spends her days applying for grants, stealing office supplies and dating her very married neighbor. Jon is a neurotic college professor writing books on obscure subjects in Buffalo. Then comes the call that informs them that the father they have long feared and avoided, Lenny Savage, is slowly being consumed by dementia and they are the only ones that can help. Now, as they put their already arrested lives on hold, Wendy and Jon are forced to live together under one roof for the first time since childhood, rediscovering the eccentricities that drove each other crazy. Faced with complete upheaval and battling over how to handle their father’s final days, they are confronted with what adulthood, family and, most surprisingly, each other are really about.

Cloverfield

Genre: Action/Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Science Fiction/Fantasy and Thriller

Rating: PG-13

Actors/Actresses: Lizzy Caplan, T.J. Miller, Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel, Odette Yustman

Synopsis: Director Matt Reeves (THE PALLBEARER) and producer J. J. Abrams (LOST, ALIAS) turn a mysterious monster loose in Manhattan in the disaster flick CLOVERFIELD. The movie begins at a party for Rob (Michael Stahl-David), who has accepted a promotion that will send him to Japan. Hud (T. J. Miller) is entrusted with the responsibility of videotaping the party–and as the trouble grows, he holds on to the camera, recording everything that happens. In fact, the entire movie is seen through the lens of his camera, reminiscent of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. As terrified people in a post-9/11 New York City take to the streets, Rob decides to head uptown to try to save Beth (Odette Yustman), the woman he loves, though he’s afraid to tell her so. Rob is joined by his brother Jason (Mike Vogel), Jason’s girlfriend Lily (Jessica Lucas), Lily’s friend Marlena (Lizzy Caplan), and Hud, who has a thing for Marlena. Rob is determined not to give up, even after almost being crushed by the Statue of Liberty’s head and as the military shows up to force evacuation of the city. Reeves and first-time screenwriter Drew Goddard, who previously has written television episodes of such series as BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, ANGEL, ALIAS, and LOST, focus in on the central aspect of the story: people trying to survive the monster attack. Very little else is explained, since the story is told completely through the video camera. And there is no additional score to heighten the drama; the only music is that which is picked up by Hud and the camera’s microphone, including snippets of songs by Kings of Leon, Parliament Funkadelic, Of Montreal, and others. The anticipation of CLOVERFIELD’s release was enhanced by a viral marketing campaign that included Web sites built around the main characters and even the fictional drink Slusho.