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Suspense and Thrills
Ridley Scott's (Blade Runner, A Good Year) new thriller is Body of Lies, a War on Terror film that stresses the conflict between the operative in the field (Leonardo DiCaprio: The Departed, The Quick and the Dead) and the man who pulls the strings back at headquarters (Russell Crowe: American Gangster, Cinderella Man). As DiCaprio moves from one middle-eastern hotspot to the next, his operations are consistently compromised from above... but when he sets up an operation that goes wrong, they must put their differences aside to make it right, and hopefully not add to a growing body count. On DVD and Blu-Ray.
Our other thriller this week is film Kontroll, set in a Budapest subway station, where a ticket-taker named Bulscu spends his days underground and never sees the sun. The underground world is host to a host of oddball characters, but when they start dying on the tracks, Bulscu begins to look into the circumstances... and as he gets closer to the murderer, he becomes the police's best suspect.
More Oscar Dramas
Angelina Jolie (Alexander, Beyond Borders) has been nominated for an Oscar this year for her performance the 20's period drama Changeling as a mother whose kidnapped son is returned to her... but she is convinced that the boy is not the one that was taken from her. The more she insists that the police find her missing son, the more the officer in charge (Jeffery Donovan: Sleepers, Hitch) insists that there has been no mistake. When a priest (John Malkovich: Burn after Reading, Ripley's Game) crusading against the injustice of the L.A.P.D. sees the measures the police are using to keep the mother quiet, she suddenly has an ally, and the ability to fight to find her son. Directed by Clint Eastwood, (Letters from Iwo Jima, Absolute Power), Changeling has also been nominated for Cinematography and Art Direction Academy Awards. On DVD and Blu-Ray.
Greg Kinnear (The Matador, Ghost Town) stars in Flash of Genius as Robert Kearns, who famously won a a patent infringement case against the "Big Three" of the automotive industry. Kearns, the inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper, believed his invention would provide his family with a good life, fought for his invention and even represented himself in court, after the automotive industry claimed his idea as their own. With Alan Alda (MASH, The Aviator), Dermot Mulroney (Zodiac, The Wedding Date), and Lauren Graham (Evan Almighty, Bad Santa).
The Czechoslovakian drama I Served the King of England tells the story of young man who tries to make his dreams of riches and stature come true by moving up through a variety of resorts and hotels in 
pre-war Europe. When World War II breaks out, his social climbing changes as he continues to pursue his dreams, but in a constantly shifting world, achieving his goals might not give him the life he wants.
Touch the Top of the World is the story of Eric Weihenmayer (Peter Facinelli: Finding Amanda, The Lather Effect), the first blind man to climb Mount Everest. Based on his autobiography, the film follows his development from a small child encouraged by his father (Bruce Campbell: My Name Is Bruce, Army of Darkness) to live a normal life despite his blindness, to the climb that made him famous.
Comedies
Adapted from a Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club) novel, Choke stars Sam Rockwell (Matchstick Men, Heist) as a sex addict, support group attendee, scam artist, and possible half-clone of Christ. In search of answers from his delirious mother (Anjelica Huston: The Darjeeling Limited, Buffalo '66), and looking for love both from the people who "save his life" when he chokes on food in restaurants and a constant stream of women, he thinks he might find what he's looking for in a beautiful doctor (Kelly Macdonald: No Country for Old Men, Trainspotting) who might be as confused as he is.
Sidney Young (Simon Pegg: Spaced, Hot Fuzz) gets a chance to move up from low-rent tabloid scandalmaker to class-A entertainment journalist in How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, when the head of a popular magazine (Jeff Bridges: The Fisher King, Iron Man) gets tired of his antagonistic tactics and takes a new approach: he hires Sidney. 
Now that has has access to the parties and the stars, Sidney has a hard time moving past his pranks and childish ruses to get stories, but he might be able to evolve and take meaningful steps to better his life and keep his integrity as a writer. With Megan Fox (Transformers, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen) and Kirsten Dunst (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Elizabethtown).
Samuel L. Jackson (Lakeview Terrace, Unbreakable) and Bernie Mac (Guess Who, Ocean's Eleven) star as estranged singers in Soul Men. Though they both used to sing backup for a legendary soul singer, they haven't spoken in twenty years... but when that singer dies, they reunite to play shows and honor his memory.
Comedian Bill Maher (The Decider, F**k) hosts Religulous, as he travels around the world asking people of all faiths why they believe what they believe.
Buckets of Blood
A Cloverfield-style first person horror film, Quarantine stars Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter, White Chicks) as a reporter and Steve Harris (Minority Report, Diary of a Mad Black Woman) as her camera man as they shoot a character piece on a local fire station. When they go with their firefighter escort (Jay Hernandez: Joy Ride, World Trade Center) on a routine medical call, they find themselves sealed inside an ancient apartment building with people who seem to have an advanced case of rabies, and, zombie-like, begin to bite and infect anything that moves.
Tthe new movies based on a Clive Barker (Hellraiser, Candyman) short story, Midnight Meat Train, was hardly advertised, barely released, and heavily censored in theaters... but the original cut has been restored on DVD, telling the story of a photographer (Bradley Cooper: The Wedding Crashers, Failure to Launch) trying to capture the "real" New York when he encounters a silent, enigmatic figure (Vinnie Jones: Hell Ride, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels), a butcher who prowls the subways late at night. But as the quest for the perfect photograph is replaced by the need to solve the butcher's mystery, he heads down into the subways to confront the kinds of truths he may not be ready to face.
From the makers of the ultra-bloody Machine Girl, Tokyo Gore Police stars Audition's Eihi Shiina as a police woman in a violent war against the Engineers. Infected with a futuristic virus, Engineers can fuse weapons to any wound in their bodies, making self-mutilation a profitable trait.
Our new family films this week are High School Musical 3: Senior Year, the third entry in the popular musical series with Zac Efron (The Derby Stallion, Hairspray), Vanessa Hudgens (Thirteen, Thunderbirds), and Ashley Tisdale (Picture This, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody), and a new Dora the Explorer movie Dora Saves the Snow Princess.
New this week to Reckless Video's TV New Releases is Dead Like Me: The Movie, tying up the loose ends from the end of the second season. We also have the first season of the popular Canadian show Corner Gas, as well as the 6th season of Ballykissangel, and the German TV movie Dresden, about the city during World War II.
