March 11, 2008 DVD Releases

No Country For Old Men

Genre: Drama, Thriller, Western, Adaptation

Rating: R

Actors/Actresses: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Beth Grant, Garret Dillahunt

Synopsis: In rural Texas, welder and hunter Llewelyn Moss discovers the remains of several drug runners who have all killed each other in an exchange gone violently wrong. Rather than report the discovery to the police, Moss decides to simply take the two million dollar present for himself.

This puts the psychopathic killer, Anton Chigurh, on his trail as he dispassionately murders nearly every rival, bystander and even employer in his pursuit of his quarry and the money. As Moss desperately attempts to keep one step ahead, the blood from this hunt begins to flow behind him with relentlessly growing intensity as Chigurh closes in. Meanwhile, the laconic Sherrif Ed Tom Bell blithely oversees the investigation even as he struggles to face the sheer enormity of the crimes he is attempting to thwart.

Bee Movie

Genre: Comedy, Animation

Rating: PG

Actors/Actresses: Jerry Seinfeld, Renee Zellweger, Kathy Bates, Oprah Winfrey, Matthew Broderick

Synopsis: ‘Bee Movie’ is a comedy that will change everything you think you know about bees. Having just graduated from college, a bee by the name of Barry B. Benson (Jerry Seinfeld) finds himself disillusioned with the prospect of having only one career choice - honey. As he ventures outside of the hive for the first time, he breaks one of the cardinal rules of the bee world and talks to a human, a New York City florist named Vanessa (Renée Zellweger). He is shocked to discover that the humans have been stealing and eating the bees’ honey for centuries, and ultimately realizes that his true calling in life is to set the world right by suing the human race for stealing their precious honey.

Dan In Real Life

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Rating: PG-13

Actors/Actresses: Steve Carell, Juliette Binoche, Dane Cook, John Mahoney, Emily Blunt

Synopsis: Dan Burns (Steve Carell) is a local newspaper advice columnist. He has three daughters and is a widower. He brings the family to his parent’s house for a family get-together. When Dan goes to a local bookstore, he meets a woman, Marie (Juliette Binoche). To catch her attention, Dan poses as a shop clerk, and convinces her to buy a random selection of books. When Marie finds out the truth, Dan proposes to make it up to her. The two share an intimate conversation and Dan starts falling for her. Marie, gets a phone call and starts to leave immediately. Dan asks for her number. Marie refuses saying that she has just started a new relationship, but relents and gives Dan her number.

On the way back, Dan, an otherwise careful driver, is so engrossed in the memory of Marie that he jumps a stop sign and gets a ticket. When he gets home, he finds out to his surprise that Marie is his brother Mitch’s (Dane Cook) girlfriend, but not before he mentions that he met a hottie at the bookstore. Dan tells Marie that they should not mention the bookstore incident to the family. The family starts liking Marie, while Dan gets envious and starts to behave strangely. Over the next few days ,the two go back and forth in forbidden love and a few laughs.

August Rush

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Rating: PG

Actors/Actresses: Freddie Highmore, Robin Williams, Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Terrence Howard

Synopsis: Twelve years ago, on a moonlit rooftop above Washington Square, Lyla Novacek, a sheltered young cellist, and Louis Connelly, a charismatic Irish singer-songwriter, were drawn together by a street musician’s rendition of “Moondance” and fell in love. After the most romantic night of her life, Lyla promised to meet Louis again but, despite her protests, her father rushed her to her next concert–leaving Louis to believe that she didn’t care. Disheartened, he found it impossible to continue playing and eventually abandoned his music while Lyla, her own hopes for love lost, was led to believe months later that she had also lost their unborn child in a car accident. Years passed with neither of them knowing the truth. Now, the infant secretly given away by Lyla’s father has grown into an unusually gifted child who hears music all around him and can turn the rustling of wind through a wheat field into a beautiful symphony with himself at its center, the composer and conductor. He holds an unwavering belief that his parents are alive and want him as much as he wants them. Determined to search for them, he makes his way to New York City. There, lost and alone, he is beckoned by the guitar music of a street kid playing for change and follows him back to a makeshift shelter in the abandoned Fillmore East Theater, where dozens of children like him live under the protection of the enigmatic Wizard. He picks up a guitar for the first time and unleashes an impromptu performance in his own unique style. Wizard names him August Rush, introduces him to the soul-stirring power of music and begins to draw out his extraordinary talent. Wizard has big plans for the young prodigy but, for August, his music has a more important purpose. He believes that if his parents can hear his music, they will find him. Unbeknownst to August, they have already begun that journey.

Hitman

Genre: Action/Adventure, Crime/Gangster

Rating: R

Actors/Actresses: Timothy Olyphant, Dougray Scott, Olga Kurylenko, Robert Knepper, Ulrich Thomsen

Synopsis: A gun-for-hire known only as Agent 47 (Timothy Olyphant) is ensnared in a political conspiracy, which finds him pursued by both Interpol and the Russian FSB (The successor of the KGB).When one of his assassinations is botched, 47 sets out to find out who set him up. Along the way he encounters numerous other hitmen assigned to take him out.

We start on a rainy street in London, where Interpol officer Mike Whittier (Dougray Scott) is just arriving home after a continually frustrating case. He goes inside and turns on a couple lights and fixes himself a drink. The lights fail, and he heads for his home office to try and fix it. He enters the office and someone says, “Nice family,” commenting on the pictures. Whittier turn and sees the ruthless hitman known only to those who know as Agent 47 (Timothy Olyphant, who far surpasses expectations). 47 assures Whittier that if he wanted to kill him than he would have done it that morning as he left for work, but instead he just wants to talk. He warns Whittier that depending on his answers he can either die or keep living. He then proceeds to ask Whittier if he thinks he (Whittier) is a good man, and what can make a good man kill….

Nancy Drew

Genre: Teen, Action/Adventure, Adaptation, Drama

Rating: PG

Actors/Actresses: Emma Roberts, Tate Donovan, Barry Bostwick, Laura Elena Harring, Josh Flitter

Synopsis: Nancy Drew, the resourceful teen detective, leaves her friendly hometown of River Heights for the West Coast and enrolls at Hollywood High School. There, her unique personal style immediately sets her apart from her self-absorbed, fast-living peers, especially reigning fashionistas Inga and Trish, who can’t quite figure her out but know that everything about her is different–from her super-smarts and retro manners to her perfect picnic lunches and penny loafers. Their less-than-warm reception might bother the average new girl in town, but not Nancy. She has more important things to think about–namely, a brand new mystery. Even though she promised her worried Dad that she’d quit the “sleuthing” business, it isn’t long before Nancy gets a lead on one of the greatest unsolved cases of all time: the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of famous actress Dehlia Draycott. It happens that the Drews are staying in the former Draycott mansion, long reputed to be haunted and now a site where some very strange things have been happening. How could she resist?

Sleuth

Genre: Comedy, Thriller, Adaptation, Remake

Rating: R

Actors/Actresses: Michael Caine, Jude Law, Harold Pinter

Synopsis: The updated story of a wealthy writer of detective stories, and an aspiring yet out-of-work actor who is having an affair with the writer’s wife. The writer’s exquisitely modernized Georgian manor, becomes the backdrop for a cat and mouse game that pits one creative mind against another.

In 1972, Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine starred in the screen adaptation of SLEUTH, based on Anthony Shaffer’s Tony Award-winning play and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Olivier played Andrew Wyke, a droll old writer whose wife is having an affair with the young, ambitious Milo Tindle, played by Caine. Thirty-five years later, Caine is starring as Wyke in an updated version of SLEUTH, completely rewritten by Nobel Prizewinner Harold Pinter and directed by multiple Oscar nominee Kenneth Branagh. Jude Law, who played the Michael Caine role in the 2004 remake of ALFIE, now takes over as Tindle, a hairdresser-actor who has shown up at Wyke’s estate to demand that Wyke divorce his wife so Tindle can marry her. But the extremely successful and wealthy Wyke is not about to give up his wife without a very determined and well-calculated battle of wits. Wyke lives by himself in a home that features dozens of electronic gadgets and odd contraptions, forcing Tindle to always be on the lookout for something strange to happen. The cat-and-mouse game continues as Tindle and Wyke play mind games with each other in a thrilling contest of one-upsmanship that soon involves a gun. Caine is marvelous as Wyke, strutting through his home with the absolute confidence that he will get the best of Tindle, but Law, who is also one of the film’s producers, holds up his end of the drama, giving as good as he gets. Branagh keeps a steady hand as director, not allowing the camera to get in the way of the two dueling characters, but Tim Harvey’s unusual production design nearly steals the show.