DVD Releases: March 18, 2008

Enchanted

Genre: Action/Adventure, Comedy, Kids/Family, Musical/Performing Arts, Science Fiction/Fantasy and Animation

Rating: PG

Actors/Actresses: Amy Adams, James Marsden, Idina Menzel, Susan Sarandon, Patrick Dempsey

Synopsis: An animated fairy tale meets modern, live-action comedy. The beautiful princess Giselle is banished by an evil queen from her magical, musical animated land and finds herself in the gritty reality of the streets of modern-day Manhattan. Shocked by this strange new environment that doesn’t operate on a “happily ever after” basis, Giselle is now adrift in a chaotic world badly in need of enchantment. But when Giselle begins to fall in love with a charmingly flawed divorce lawyer who has come to her aid – even though she is already promised to a perfect fairy tale prince back home – she has to wonder: Can a storybook view of romance survive in the real world?

Atonement

Genre: Drama, Romance, Adaptation and War

Rating: R

Actors/Actresses: James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, Saoirse Ronan, Brenda Blethyn, Vanessa Redgrave

Synopsis: In 1935, 13-year-old fledgling writer Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan) and her family live a life of wealth and privilege in their enormous mansion. On the warmest day of the year, the country estate takes on an unsettling hothouse atmosphere, stoking Briony’s vivid imagination. Robbie Turner (James McAvoy), the educated son of the family’s housekeeper, carries a torch for Briony’s headstrong older sister Cecilia (Kiera Knightley). Cecilia, he hopes, has comparable feelings; all it will take is one spark for this relationship to combust. When it does, Briony – who has a crush on Robbie – is compelled to interfere, going so far as accusing Robbie of a crime he did not commit. Cecilia and Robbie declare their love for each other, but he is arrested – and with Briony bearing false witness, the course of three lives is changed forever. Briony continues to seek forgiveness for her childhood misdeed. Through a terrible and courageous act of imagination, she finds the path to her uncertain atonement, and to an understanding of the power of enduring love.

I Am Legend

Genre: Action/Adventure, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Thriller, Adaptation and Remake

Rating: PG-13

Actors/Actresses: Will Smith, Alice Braga, Dash Mihok, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Charlie Tahan, Willow Smith, Darrell Foster, April Grace, James McCauley

Synopsis: Robert Neville is a brilliant scientist, but even he could not contain the terrible virus that was unstoppable, incurable and manmade. Somehow immune, Neville is now the last human survivor in what is left of New York City, and maybe the world. But he is not alone. He is surrounded by “the Infected”-victims of the plague who have mutated into carnivorous beings who can only exist in the dark and who will devour or infect anyone or anything in their path. For three years, Neville has spent his days scavenging for food and supplies and faithfully sending out radio messages, desperate to find any other survivors who might be out there. All the while, the Infected lurk in the shadows, watching Neville’s every move, waiting for him to make a fatal mistake. Perhaps mankind’s last, best hope, Neville is driven by only one remaining mission: to find a way to reverse the effects of the virus using his own immune blood. But his blood is also what The Infected hunt, and Neville knows he is outnumbered and quickly running out of time.

Southland Tales

Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy and Thriller

Rating: R

Actors/Actresses: Seann William Scott, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Janeane Garofalo, Amy Poehler, Kevin Smith

Synopsis: California is at the epicenter of a political and environmental disaster that threatens to destroy the world in this ambitious fusion of comedy, drama, dystopia science fiction, and music. In the year 2005, a nuclear attack wipes out part of the state of Texas, and three years later America is a virtual police state, with the government taking control of nearly every part of people’s lives, supposedly for their own good. A German firm has found a way to generate energy using seawater, but both public and private concerns are desperate to prevent the new technology from being introduced in the gasoline-starved United States. A Marxist underground based on the West Coast is determined to bring down the federal government through violent revolution. In this midst of this chaos, we follow a number of stories that continually return to three principle characters. Boxer Santaros is an actor famous for his role in action films; he’s trying to secure financing for a new project, but reality keeps mirroring the events in his script and he struggles to hold on to his identity following a bout with amnesia. Krysta Now is a porn star who is reinventing herself as a television pundit offering her views on politics, contemporary culture, and teenage sex. And Roland Taverner is an L.A. police officer whose identity has mysteriously split in two and he struggles to track down his other half.

Love In The Time Of Cholera

Genre: Drama, Romance and Adaptation

Rating: R

Actors/Actresses: Javier Bardem, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Benjamin Bratt, Catalina Sandino Moreno, John Leguizamo

Synopsis: Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA straddles the line between pop and art, and manages to be both a bestseller and a literary masterpiece. With an excellent cast and a timeless story, Mike Newell’s cinematic adaptation strives for that same balance. As a young man in 19th-century Colombia, Florentino Ariza (played primarily by Javier Bardem) falls in love with a beautiful woman named Fermina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno). But an overprotective father (John Leguizamo) and too much reality intrude on their romance, and Fermina marries a successful doctor, Juvenal Urbino (Benjamin Bratt). But a wedding ring–and the passing decades–aren’t enough to dissuade Florentino from his love, even as he beds hundreds of women as he tries to get over his undying passion. Screenwriter Ronald Harwood (THE PIANIST) distills Garcia Marquez’s novel–which spans more than 50 years and almost 400 pages–into an accessible film. The basic element of the book–Florentino’s love for Fermina–remains intact, and it’s driven by yet another excellent performance from Bardem. Fans who were impressed by his masterly turn as a cold-blooded killer in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN will be pleasantly surprised that the Spanish actor can be just as adept playing a character driven by love. As in his previous work such as FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL and HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE, director Mike Newell has assembled another fine cast that also includes Liev Schreiber, Catalina Sandino Moreno, and Hector Elizondo.

The Sasquatch Gang

Genre: Comedy, Science Fiction/Fantasy and Suspense/Horror

Rating: PG-13

Actors/Actresses: Jon Gries, Joey Kern, Jeremy Sumpter, Justin Long, Addie Land

Synopsis: When Gavin Gore and his three friends, Hobie, Maynard, and Sophie go for a hike up to Deer Cliff Falls, they discover some suspicious footprints and scat that they assume can only be from one source—Bigfoot. They quickly decide to alert police and the media of the find and start a small sensation in their town. Bullies make fun of Gavin and suggest the tracks are a hoax leading to a showdown that hinges on the authenticity of the footprints in the mud.

But even as Gavin and his friends seek to prove the validity of their own claims, their dimwitted neighbors Zerk (Justin Long) and Shirts are on a quest of their own to save their precious Pontiac Firebird from being repossessed by the bank. Zerk comes up with the idea that they should sell plaster casts made from the Bigfoot tracks online. All seems to be running smoothly until a self proclaimed Bigfoot expert comes to town to verify if the tracks are really from Bigfoot. Suddenly, the profitability of their operation is in jeopardy based on the diagnosis of Dr. Artimus Snodgrass, Sasquatch expert.

Is it a hoax? Will Zerk and Shirts save their precious car? Will Gavin get pummeled by bullies or will he be the victor and make out with the girl of his dreams? Find out for yourself in “The Sasquatch Gang.”

The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising

Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Rating: PG

Actors/Actresses: Ian McShane, Frances Conroy, Christopher Eccleston, Alexander Ludwig, Amelia Warner, Gregory Smith, Emma Lockhart, Gary Entin, Edmond Entin, John Benjamin Hickey, Wendy Crewson

Synopsis: Based on Susan Cooper’s 1973 Newbery Award-winning fantasy novel, THE DARK IS RISING, director David L. Cunningham’s 2007 film follows the adventures of young protagonist Will Stanton (Alexander Ludwig), who discovers that he is an immortal being connected with an ancient struggle between good and evil. Aided by fellow “Old Ones,” including Miss Greythorne (Frances Conroy) and Merriman Lyon (Ian McShane), Will, an American transplant in England, must face off against shadowy forces bent on world domination, most notably represented by the black-clad Rider (Christopher Eccleston). Taking a different approach to Cooper’s revered novel, THE SEEKER, actually drawn from the second book in THE DARK IS RISING sequence, will certainly raise the eyebrows of ardent fans of the series, particularly given screenwriter John Hodge’s considerable alterations to the original story. (For example, Will is American instead of British.) For those unattached to Cooper’s story, however, THE SEEKER will likely prove to be an enjoyable escapist film, with Conroy (SIX FEET UNDER), McShane (DEADWOOD), and Eccleston (HEROES) adding credibility to a largely unknown cast that is anchored by the likable Ludwig. Presented by Walden Media, the company behind the CHRONICLES OF NARNIA screen adaptations, THE SEEKER may not please Cooper purists, but it will undoubtedly entertain those looking for a diverting fantasy movie.