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Spreading the Disease

Similar to the ensemble cast-driven, multiple perspective take on a large issue that won him an oscar for Traffic, Steven Soderbergh's Contagion tracks a deadly pandemic as it sweeps the globe. With no single point of view, Contagion tells its story through the doctors (including Marion Cotillard, Lawrence Fishburne, Kate Winslet) trying to identify and cure the disease, a normal family (Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow) dealing with the infection, and the world's reaction to placebos, hoarding, mass hysteria, and hopes for a vaccine. With Jude Law. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Based on a true story, Puncture centers around personal injury lawyer Mike Weiss (Chris Evans) and his business partner Paul Danziger as they take the case of a former nurse (Vinessa Shaw) infected with AIDS by an accidental needle stick. Weiss tries to balance his full time drug addiction with a case that could spread safer syringes, shunned by most hospitals, throughout the medical community. Championing the inventor of the "safety point" syringe (Marshall Bell), Weiss takes on a system that endangers health professionals and the corporate lawyer (Brett Cullen) that defends the status quo. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

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Killers, Monsters, and The Deranged

Eight-year-old Sally (Bailee Madison) goes to live with her father (Guy Pearce) and his new girlfriend, Kim (Katie Holmes), in Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. Moving into a 19th century mansion that her father is restoring, no one believes Sally when she says she hears voices. When they discover a blocked-off basement, the manor's caretaker (Jack Thompson) warns them to leave it alone... but the previously blocked basement only makes Sally's claims of voices and creepy, under-the-bed creatures stronger. Though no one believes the little girl, strange occurrences start to plague the household until they all have to accept that something is wrong. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Snakes on a Plane director David R. Ellis sends Sara (Sara Paxton) and her group of college friends (including Dustin Milligan and Joel David Moore) to her family's island vacation home on a private lake in Shark Night. Though they happen across Sara's ex (Chris Carmack) and his redneck buddy (Joshua Leonard), the real danger is in the lake: it's packed with a variety of sharks. With no signal on their cell phones, and no way to call for help or reach the local sheriff (Donal Logue), they're trapped and completely surrounded by dangerous predators.

Virginia (Felicia Day) is taking her fiance (Kavan Smith) home to meet her family in Red: Werewolf Hunter, but her family comes with a secret: they're werewolf hunters, and Virginia is the last living descendant of the original Red Riding Hood. Though the truce between her clan and the werewolves has stood for years, Gabriel (Steven McHattie), a wolf who can change without a full moon, has started a new war, and Virginia and her hunt-obsessed brother (Greg Bryk) are ready to fight back.

Cole (Mark Kelly) has been suffering hallucinations that cost him his high-power office job and his wife (Emma Caufield) in Removal. Cole is at the end of a long week of double shifts when an aggressive client (Oz Perkins) offers him $5,000 to do his house-- a three man job, at least-- in one night. Running low on his medication and still haunted by the murder/suicide of his friend (Billy Burke), Cole's grip on reality starts to slip throughout the course of the job, and he can't tell if there's actual danger in his client's eyes or if it's all just in his head.

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Crime Fighters

Sergeant Boyle (Brendan Gleeson) works a quiet beat in County Galway, Ireland in The Guard, and the slow pace allows Boyle to indulge in booze, drugs, and prostitutes without being bothered too much. When an unconventional murder occurs in his jurisdiction, Boyle's saddled with FBI Agent Everett (Don Cheadle)-- Boyle is constantly infuriating the American, but Everett starts to suspect that Boyle is the only one who can help him. With a psychotic trio (Liam Cunningham, David Wilmot, and Mark Strong) on the loose in the otherwise-quiet county, the only hope of closing the case is the unlikely team of Boyle and Everett. With Rory Keenan. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Sean Donovan is a troubled high school student, haunted by the traumas of his youth in Boy Wonder. As a boy, he had to deal with an abusive, alcoholic father (Bill Sage), who only quit drinking after his mother was murdered in a carjacking-gone-wrong. When a driven police officer (Zulay Henao) gets transferred into his neighborhood, she's curious about the boy who spends his nights at the precinct, staring at mugshots, hoping to find his mother's killer... but she also begins to draw connections between Sean and recent vigilante: someone has been fighting and executing violent men who got away with killing women.

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Comedy

Kate (Sarah Jessica Parker) has a lot on her hands in I Don't Know How She Does It. An executive by day and devoted wife and mother at night, she has the support of a good friend (Christina Hendricks) with a similar lifestyle to keep both lives on track. When her husband (Greg Kinnear) grabs a good job and Kate signs on for a new business deal-- one that will send Kate to New York regularly, and pairs her with a flirtatious associate (Pierce Brosnan)-- their already overbooked lives are spread even thinner. The comedy of desperation follows both sides of the marriage as they succeed in business, make it to the kids' afterschool activities, and still get dinner on the table. With Olivia Munn. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Recently departed stand-up comedian Patrice O'Neal's first full-length comedy special is Elephant in the Room, filmed at the New York Comedy Festival in February 2011.

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Family-Friendly

Middle-schooler Whitney (Sammi Hanratty) was a princess in Philadelphia, a high-society girl with all the right friends and every luxury she could hope for The Greening of Whitney Brown. When her father (Aidan Quinn) loses his job, Whitney's taken away from everything she know and has to live in her grandfather's (Kris Kristofferson) country home, where cell reception is spotty and wi-fi is nonexistent. Though her mother (Brooke Shields) adapts smoothly from power lunches to making jam, Whitney hates the country... until she finds Bob, her grandfather's horse, and learns to care about something other than herself.

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New this week in our TV New Releases:

	Mildred Pierce	Kate Winslet stars in the Golden Globe-nominated miniseries about a woman struggling during the Great Depression		Justified Season 2	Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) is still banished to Kentucky, but he's able to deal with the criminals in his home town better than any outside law enforcement.
	Fabric of the Cosmos	Professor and author Brian Greene explores the concepts of reality and spacetime, and how people in general perceive the world around them.		Royal Pains Season 3	Hank Larson continues to be a house-call "doctor for hire" among the privileged and isolated wealthy community in the Hamptons.