November 3, 2009 DVD Releases
November 3, 2009
Aliens in the Attic
Genre: Adventure, Comedy
MPAA Rating: PG
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Director: John Schultz
Screenwriter: Mark Burton, Adam F. Goldberg
Movie Website: AliensintheAtticmovie.com
Actors/Actresses: Kevin Nealon, Robert Hoffman, Doris Roberts, Tim Meadows, Ashley Tisdale
Plot Summary: “Aliens in the Attic,” co-scripted by one of the writers of “Madagascar” and the Academy Award-winning “Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were Rabbits,” is an adventure/comedy about kids on a family vacation who must fight off an attack by knee-high alien invaders with world-destroying ambitions–while the youngsters’ parents remain clueless about the battle.
I Love You, Beth Cooper
Genre: Comedy
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Director: Chris Columbus
Screenwriter: Larry Doyle
Movie Website: ILoveYouBethCoopermovie.com
Actors/Actresses: Hayden Panettiere, Paul Rust, Jack T. Carpenter, Lauren London
Plot Summary: Buffalo Grove High School valedictorian Denis Cooverman (Paul Rust) has had quite an academic career… on paper, at least. Superlative student, conscientious young gentleman and patently obvious dork, Denis has played it safe and made it all the way to graduation day without ever having really experienced some of the joys of higher learning: breaking curfew, destruction of property, over-consumption of alcohol, fist fights, late nights, fast cars or faster women (actually, women of any sort).
But all of that is about to change, and all by uttering five little words: “I Love You, Beth Cooper.”
Seems that Denis has been harboring a secret for six years, a chronic case of l’amour fou for Beth (Hayden Panettiere), one of the most popular girls in school, who sat in the desk just in front of him in multiple classes (God bless alphabetical order!). And thanks to his colorful best friend, Rich (Jack T. Carpenter), Denis has been goaded into telling the truth and declaring his love during his valedictory address – while also putting names to several other white elephants stampeding through the senior class.
His resulting embarrassment is short-lived, however, when The Trinity – Beth and her two best friends, super-bitchy Cammy (Lauren London) and super-easy Treece (Lauren Storm) – shows up to his and Rich’s ad hoc graduation night party. Unfortunately for Denis, Beth’s thick-necked, military hopeful boyfriend, Kevin (Shawn Roberts), also shows up, with two equally menacing, double-digit IQ friends in tow. When the inevitable can of “you insulted my woman!” whoop-ass is opened, Beth comes to the rescue, and whisks Denis, Rich, Cammy and Treece away in her beat-up Cabriolet.
As the chase continues from sunset to sun up, Denis realizes that his little speech has given rise to one of the wildest, most eventful, most hilarious and most revealing nights of his life.
Food, Inc.
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: PG
Studio: Magnolia Pictures
Director: Robert Kenner
Movie Website: FoodIncmovie.com
Actors/Actresses: Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser, Gary Hirschberg, Joe Salatin
Plot Summary: In “Food, Inc.,” filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that’s been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but we also have new strains of e coli–the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.
Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (“Fast Food Nation”), Michael Pollan (“The Omnivore’s Dilemma”) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield Farms’ Gary Hirschberg and Polyface Farms’ Joe Salatin, “Food, Inc.” reveals surprising — and often shocking truths — about what we eat, how it’s produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.
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