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All different kinds of funny
Year One is director Harold Ramis' (Bedazzled, Analyze That) slapstick remaining of history, starring Jack Black (Tropic Thunder, Margot at the Wedding) as a painfully bad hunter and Michael Cera (Arrested Development, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist) as a meek gatherer, as they both get banned from the village, never to see their home (or the girls they've been chasing) again. As they wander through a biblical landscape, they come across the self-centered and murderous Cain (David Cross: Mr. Show, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and the foreskin obsessed Abraham (Hank Azaria: Run Fatboy Run, Along Came Polly) before ending up in the twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, where the two become soldiers, slaves, and might even topple empires. With Juno Temple (The Other Boleyn Girl, Atonement), June Diane Raphael (Bride Wars, Forgetting Sarah Marshall), and Oliver Platt (The Ice Harvest, Pieces of April).
A documentary about a seminal Canadian metal band that never made good, Anvil: The Story of Anvil recounts Anvil's history from their first record in 1981 and films their current lives, from their 2006 DIY European tour to scraping together money to record their thirteenth album. Often touted as a "real life Spinal Tap," The Story of Anvil is both a touching tale of perseverance and a series of comic misadventures (including poorly managed shows, and a visit to Stonehenge) which has been almost unanimously critically acclaimed.
Nia Vardalos (Connie and Carla, My Big Fat Greek Wedding) stars as a tour guide, showing the history of ancient Greece to gift shop-orinted tourists in My Life in Ruins. Her opinion of one of her groups changes when she meets Richard Dreyfuss (Silver City, Who Is Cletis Tout?), an older but freewheeling traveler that brightens her life and encourages her to have fun and live her life.
The Australian mockumentary Kenny tells the story of a plumber who works for a management business... mostly tending to portable toilets. Though his job doesn't earn him a lot of respect, Kenny is a good-natured soul, and goes about his life with a cheerful optimism.
Reece Thompson (Rocket Science, The Sandlot 2) is a writer on the high school newspaper in Assassination of a High School President, and he's on to a killer story in a film that blends a high school comedy, a noir-style mystery, and a dark comedy. Tracking his story and solving his mystery lands him the attention of both the most popular girl in school (Mischa Barton: Lost and Delirious, The O.C.) and the wildly over-the-top, ex-military, gum hating principal (Bruce Willis: What Just Happened, Live Free or Die Hard).
Halloween's Coming
The underground cult hit Trick 'r Treat, circling small festivals since 2007, is finally out on DVD this week, and tells several stories, all happening simultaneously on one Halloween night, marrying the multi-chapter horror movies like Creepshow and Tales from the Darkside with overlapping narratives and non-linear storytelling like Pulp Fiction or Go. The film crosses the lives of a pumpkin-smashing kid (Brett Kelly: Bad Santa, Unaccompanied Minors) who's caught by his principal (Dylan Baker: Revolutionary Road, Fido) who warns him to respect the traditions of Halloween, Anna Paquin (The Squid and the Whale, True Blood) as she sets out for her "first time" under the guidance of her more experienced big sister (Lauren Lee Smith: The Last Kiss, Pathology), Britt McKillip (Mission to Mars, Dead Like Me) who tells the tale of the School Bus Massacre, and Brian Cox (Match Point, Braveheart) as the reclusive old man who needs to be taught a lesson in the spirit of the holiday.
A remake of the 1974 horror film, It's Alive stars Bijou Phillips (Choke, What We Do Is Secret) as a young woman who gives birth to her first child... and awakens to hear that no one but herself and the baby made it out of the delivery room alive. As she and her husband (Raphael Coleman: Nanny McPhee) begin to discover that something may be wrong, the body count in their community continues to grow.
Foreign Films
The Mexican science fiction film Sleep Dealer takes place in the near future, where the physical borders between countries are locked tight and patrolled by the military, but the electronic borders can be crossed by cyberpunks and hackers who plug their bodies into the net and enter a world of high-tech factories, killer drone, and international terrorists.
Treeless Mountain is a Korean film about two young sisters left to their own devices as their mother leaves in search of their estranged father. Aged seven and nine, the two girls stay with their aunt and wait... until they are eventually shuffled off to their grandparents' farm, and they slowly realize that the must rely on one another.
New this week to Reckless Videos TV New Releases are the 4th season of the FBI procedural series Bones, the 2nd season of the supernatural/vampire mystery Blood Ties, the second half of season 5 of the plastic surgery/doctor series Nip/Tuck, and the 4th season of the comedy How I Met Your Mother. We also have the first season of BBC's animated comedy Chock Socky Chooks, and Red Dwarf: Back to Earth, which lands the Red Dwarf crew back on Earth in 2009.
