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the RomCom implications of the word And
Embarrassed at a club, Nora (Kat Dennings: Charlie Bartlett, Raise Your Voice) asks a stranger to pretend to be her boyfriend for five minutes; what she doesn't know is that she's just paired up with recently-dumped Nick (Michael Cera: Juno, Superbad), and she knows his ex-girlfriend (Alexis Dziena: Strangers with Candy, Fool's Gold). Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist sends the pair across New York, crossing Nick's band (Aaron Yoo: 21, Disturbia and Ari Graynor: Mystic River, Turn the River) and Norah's sometimes boyfriend (Jay Baruchel: Million Dollar Baby, Tropic Thunder) as random events either push them or pull them apart on one long, strange night.
Director Kevin Smith (Clerks, Chasing Amy) takes on romantic comedies the way one expects he would in Zack & Miri Make a Porno, which takes the romcom conceit and adds Star Wars geekdom, foul language, and armature pornography. When roommates Elizabeth Banks (Fred Claus, Slither) and Seth Rogen (Pineapple Express, Knocked Up) can't pay their rent, they come up with a get rich scheme that might bring them closer together... they'll make their own adult film.
growing...
Set in 1976, a French wine-shop owner (Alan Rickman: Die Hard, Galaxy Quest), determined to introduce his customers to quality wines made worldwide, journeys to then-unknown Napa Valley in Bottle Shock. He meets an independent vintner (Bill Pullman: Independence Day, The Zero Effect) and his son (Chris Pine: Blind Dating, Just My Luck), and discovers that not only is there wine outside of France, there's a whole lot more. With Rachael Taylor (Transformers, Shutter), Freddy Rodriguez (Six Feet Under, Planet Terror), and Dennis Farina (Get Shorty, You Kill Me).
After her mother dies, Dakota Fanning (Dreamer, Uptown Girls) and her caregiver (Jennifer Hudson: Dreamgirls, Sex & the City) flee her abusive father (Paul Bettany: Firewall, A Beautiful Mind) and travel to South Carolina in The Secret Life of Bees. Looking for clues about her mother's death, she meets the Boatwright Sisters: May (Sophie Okonedo: Aeon Flux, Hotel Rwanda), June (Alicia Keys: The Nanny Diaries, Smokin Aces), and August (Queen Latifah: Bringing Down the House, The Perfect Holiday), beekeepers who help her to learn about her mother, her past, and herself.
Higher Intensity
Our other Dakota Fanning (War of the Worlds, The Cat in the Hat) film this week is much darker: Hounddog is the story of a young girl raised by her restrictive, religious grandmother (Piper Laurie: The Dead Girl, The Crossing Guard) in the 1950s. Forced to grow up early, she finds happiness in the music of Elvis Presley, but the wildness her grandmother warned her against takes a young girl into dangerous territory, and some controversial situations.
Less serious, The Gene Generation is a cyberpunk, sci-fi, action film starring Bai Ling (Southland Tales, The Crow) as a genetically modified assassin named Michelle in a world where DNA hackers can kill with their special skills. When Michelle's younger brother (Parry Shen: Hatchet, The New Guy) gets involved with the hackers, the two of them find themselves between sides in a high tech gang war, and fleeing the city for safety proves more difficult than they thought. With Faye Dunaway (Chinatown, Mommie Dearest).
A zombie-western, Dead Noon pits two small-town lawmen against a resurrected gunfighter from the old west, who brings an army of walking skeletons, cowboy zombies and demons to reclaim his town. The Pang Brothers (Bangkok Dangerous, Re-Cycle) newest horror film is Diary, the a mystery about a young woman who recorded the death of her previous boyfriend in her diary years ago, and when she shares the diary with her new lover, he learns more than he wanted to know.
The documentary The World Without US investigates the United States' role in the world, the nation's impact overseas, and the possible effect of the US withdrawing all of its worldwide troops and pulling out of the global arena.
Family-friendly...
An offshoot of the popular Air Bud series, Space Buddies continues the adventures of the talking puppies from Air Buddies and Snow Buddies. The puppies suit up for space travel in one small step for one small step for dog... one giant leap for dogkind.
Fireproof is a the story of a firefighter's (Kirk Cameron: Growing Pains, Left Behind) quest to honor his marriage and discover God's love, produced by Sherwood Films (Facing the Giants), a ministry of Sherwood Baptist Church.
New this week to Reckless Video's TV New Releases is the sixth season of the popular British series MI-5, as well as the complete Twin Peaks (including the never-officially-released pilot episode), and four more previously unreleased Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes from their new distributor, including Mad Monster, Manhunt in Space, Soultaker, and Final Justice.