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Before the end
Jack Nicholson (Anger Management, Prizzi's Honor) and Morgan Freeman (Gone Baby Gone, Se7en) team up for a buddy-film adventure when they both find out they have cancer. They write up The Bucket List... a list of things to do before they kick the bucket. Rob Reiner (A Few Good Men, Alex & Emma) directs this comedy about life, death, and making the most of the time you have.
Expiration Date is the other mortality-themed comedy out this week. The men in Robert A. Guthrie's (The O.C, The New Guy) family, both his father and grandfather, were killed on their 25th birthdays... by milk trucks. About to turn 25, he makes preparations for his inevitable demise, when he meets a girl (Sascha Knopf: He Was a Quiet Man, The Believer) who won't let him give up so easily. Expiration Date was an Official Selection at the 2006 Seattle International Film Festival.
Super Powers
Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Swingers) directs the new sci-fi/action film Jumper, where and awkward teenager (Hayden Christensen: Revenge of the Sith, Awake) discovers he has the power to teleport at will. At first, this power wins him unlimited money and a chance to woo his dream girl, but a secret organization of "paladins," led by Samuel L. Jackson (Resurrecting the Champ, S.W.A.T.), is determined to hunt down and eradicate the Jumpers.
Originally filmed as a special effects demo reel, Ryan vs. Dorkman (and RvDM2, both available on the same disc) are elaborate lightsaber battles. After gaining popularity as viral videos, they are now available as commercial DVDs, bundled with a "Making of..." documentary. Though the duels are each under 10 minutes, they are an inventive use of the Star Wars mythos, well shot and choreographed, and stand up against any of the action scenes in the Star Wars prequels.
History
The Other Boleyn Girl is the story of Anne (Natalie Portman: Garden State, V for Vendetta) and Mary (Scarlett Johnansson: Lost in Translation, The Prestige) Boleyn, as they vie for the affections of King Henry VII (Eric Bana: Munich, Chopper). Following the same story as the Showtime series The Tudors, The Other Boleyn Girl provides the budget and star power of a major motion picture.
Paul Giamatti (Cinderella Man, Shoot 'Em Up) plays the second President of the United States in John Adams, a new miniseries from HBO,. Documenting the first fifty years of the country, John Adams features many historical figures, including George Washington (David Morse: Disturbia, Dancer in the Dark) and Benjamin .jpg)
Franklin (Tom Wilkinson: Michael Clayton, The Exorcism of Emily Rose), with Laura Linney (The Truman Show, The Life of David Gale) playing John's wife, Abigail Adams.
A more recent biopic, Control is the story of Ian Curtis, the tragic frontman for the legendary band Joy Division. Shot by video director Anton Corbijn and starring Samantha Morton (In America, Code 46) as Curtis' long suffering wife, the film covers Curtis' early life, the rise of Joy Division, and the now legendary end of his story.
The scares...
Michael Haneke (Cache, The Piano Teacher) directs a nearly shot-for-shot English remake of his 1997 German-language film Funny Games. A married couple (Naomi Watts: 21 Grams, Eastern Promises, and Tim Roth: To Kill a King, Four Rooms) attempt to be courteous to a white gloved s
tranger (Michael Pitt: Delirious, Last Days) only to have him become increasingly violent. When another young man (Brady Corbet: Thirteen, Mysterious Skin) arrives, they hold the family hostage and terrorize them with increasingly sadistic "games."
The Signal is an ambitious movie about a mysterious signal that overtakes peoples mind and drives them to kill. The movie is set up as three separate "transmissions," each segment helmed by a different director, and each setting up a different tone (ranging from straight horror to black comedy).
A young girl (Ashley Johnson: Fast Food Nation, Anywhere but Here) is abducted, chained, and forced to act out a bizarre ritual in Otis... but when her parents (Daniel Stern: City Slickers, Very Bad Things, and Illeana Douglas: Happy Texas, Factory Girl) find Otis, they find the imaginative limits of their revenge as the film satirizes the "torture" conventions of franchises like Saw and Hostel.
...and the laughs
A mockumentary in the style of the Christopher Guest films (Best in Show, Waiting for Guffman), The Grand is set around a winner-take-all poker tournament between an ensemble cast of contestants, including Woody Harrelson (Semi-Pro, The People vs. Larry Flint), David Cross (School for Scoundrels, I'm Not There), Dennis Farina (You Kill Me, Snatch), Cheryl Hines (Waitress, RV), Richard Kind (The Producers, The Station Agent), and Chris Parnell (Anchorman, Hot Rod). The Grand is written and directed by Zak Penn (writer of PCU, X-Men 2), who still allows the cast lots of room for improvisation.
Larry the Cable Guy (Delta Farce, Health Inspector) stars as a small town sheriff who ends up crossing the FBI in Witless Protection, which puts him at odds with a variety of high society types who have never heard of "Git R Done."
The new additions to Reckless Video's TV New Releases include the second season of Adult Swim's Boondocks, and the anime action/horror series Blood+.