DVD Releases: March 25, 2008

Stephen King’s The Mist

Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy, Suspense/Horror, Thriller and Adaptation

Rating: R

Actors/Actresses: Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Andre Braugher, Toby Jones

Synopsis: Everyone thought of it as a harmless lightning storm. When Dave Drayton (Thomas Jane) notices a strange mist on the lake, he thinks nothing of it. When his son, Billy Drayton (Nathan Gamble), his neighbor Brent Norton (Andre Braugher), and himself travel to the supermarket, the unthinkable happens. On their way to the market, they see the army, the firefighters, and the police, heading toward the mist. When he sees this Brent mentions something about “Project Arrowhead”, a secret military plan that no one knows about. As they are shopping, they see three army men walk in, just to pick up a few things then head toward the mist. All eighty of the store’s shoppers had no clue what was going on until an old man (Jeffery Demunn) runs in the market with a bloody nose and declares “Something in the mist!” He tells them to close the door. About five seconds after they do close the door, the entire store shakes, as though it was lifted feet above the ground. When David is asked to check on the generator, the loading dock door was being pushed by something outside. Then there was a groan heard by Dave. He asks three people to come with him. When Norm the bag-boy(Chris Owen) volunteers to go out, he is taken by a creature with large squid-like tentacles that have mouths, teeth, and arms of their own. When Dave and the other three fight it off, they alarm everyone in the store what is out there. After hearing this, Mrs. Carmody(Marcia Gay Wallace)exclaims that it is the end of times and that God is punishing them. People don’t believe it until Mrs.Carmody has almost everyone in the store on her side. Does ‘Project Arrowhead’ have anything to do with this? Will Dave Drayton, his son, and his friends make it out alive as they make their last stand against this destruction? Or will they be taken by the demon-like creatures of ‘The Mist’?

Walk the Line

Genre: Drama, Musical/Performing Arts and Biopic

Rating: R

Actors/Actresses: Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Ginnifer Goodwin, Robert Patrick, Dallas Roberts

Synopsis:In 1955, a tough, skinny guitar-slinger who called himself J.R. Cash walked into the soon-to-be-famous Sun Studios in Memphis. It was a moment that would have an indelible effect on American culture. With his driving freight-train chords, steel-eyed intensity and a voice as deep and black as night, Cash sang blistering songs of heartache and survival that were gutsy, full of real life and unlike anything heard before. That day kicked off the electrifying early career of Johnny Cash. As he pioneered a fiercely original sound that blazed a trail for rock, country, punk, folk and rap stars to come, Cash began a rough-and-tumble journey of personal transformation. In the most volatile period of his life, he evolved from a self-destructive pop star into the iconic Man in Black facing down his demons, fighting for the love that would raise him up, and learning how to walk the razor-thin line between destruction and redemption.

Wristcutters: A Love Story

Genre: Comedy, Adaptation

Rating: R

Actors/Actresses: Patrick Fugit, Shea Whigham, Shannyn Sossamon, Tom Waits, Will Arnett

Synopsis: If a film begins with a suicide, chances are, it won’t be the feel-good movie of the year. But WRISTCUTTERS: A LOVE STORY is surprisingly sweet and funny even as it proudly features a dark streak that lives up to its title. After a rough breakup, Zia (Patrick Fugit) decides to off himself by slashing open his wrists. Instead of waking up in heaven or hell, Zia arrives in a bland world that looks a lot like the one he just left, though with far less color, life, and–obviously–happiness. In this afterlife reserved for suicides, no one can smile, and the sky is a starless void. But when Zia hears that his ex-girlfriend (Leslie Bibb) has killed herself and lives in his world, he sets out on a road trip to find her. Joined by Russian musician Eugene (Shea Whigham) and pretty hitchhiker Mikal (Shannyn Sossamon), Zia crosses the desolate landscape and encounters a variety of strange characters. With the help of Mikal, Zia realizes that maybe his ex-girlfriend isn’t really what he’s looking for. Most films don’t stray from prescribed genres or simple plots, but this dark comedy from director Goran Dukic is audacious in its originality. Dukic adapted Etgar Keret’s short story “Kneller’s Happy Campers” into a film that succeeds on every level. His cast, particularly Fugit and a brilliant Tom Waits in a supporting role, is worthy of the excellent material and blackly comic dialogue. Though it could be described as a romantic comedy, this film is far closer to ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND than SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE. WRISTCUTTERS’s soundtrack is also something to sing about with several infectious tracks from Gogol Bordello and a pitch-perfect score from Bobby Johnston.

War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death

Genre: Documentary

Rating: Not Rated

Actors/Actresses: Norman Soloman, Sean Penn (Narrator) and features presidential archive footage.

Synopsis: War Made Easy reaches into the Orwellian memory hole to expose a 50-year pattern of government deception and media spin that has dragged the United States into one war after another from Vietnam to Iraq. Narrated by actor and activist Sean Penn, the film exhumes remarkable archival footage of official distortion and exaggeration from LBJ to George W. Bush, revealing in stunning detail how the American news media have uncritically disseminated the pro-war messages of successive presidential administrations.

War Made Easy gives special attention to parallels between the Vietnam war and the war in Iraq. Guided by media critic Norman Solomon’s meticulous research and tough-minded analysis, the film presents disturbing examples of propaganda and media complicity from the present alongside rare footage of political leaders and leading journalists from the past, including Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, dissident Senator Wayne Morse, and news correspondents Walter Cronkite and Morley Safer.

Norman Solomon’s work has been praised by the Los Angeles Times as “brutally persuasive” and essential “for those who would like greater context with their bitter morning coffee.” This film now offers a chance to see that context on the screen.

Steal A Pencil For Me

Genre: Documentary, Romance

Rating: Not Rated

Actors/Actresses: Jean-Pierre Gillain, Jeroen Krabbé, Marieke Oudejans, Jack Polak, Ina Soep, Ellen Ten Damme

Synopsis: STEAL A PENCIL FOR ME is a compelling documentary feature film by Academy Award® nominee Michèle Ohayon about the power of love and the ability of humankind to rise above unimaginable suffering. 1943; Holland is under total Nazi occupation. In Amsterdam, Jack, an unassuming accountant, first meets Ina at a birthday party – a 20 year old beauty from a wealthy diamond manufacturing family who instantly steals his heart. But Jack’s pursuit of love will be complicated; he is poor and married to Manja, a flirtatious and mercurial spouse. When the Jews are being deported, the husband, the wife and the lover find themselves at the same concentration camp; actually living in the same barracks. When Jack’s wife objects to the “girlfriend” in spite of their unhappy marriage, Jack and Ina resort to writing secret love letters, which sustain them throughout the horrible circumstances of the war. Jack: “I’m a very special Holocaust survivor. I was in the camps with my wife and my girlfriend; and believe me, it wasn’t easy.”