What to Watch: New DVD Releases for February 28 (incl HUGO!)
Without a doubt, the biggest release of the week is Hugo. (It's actually kind of a lackluster week otherwise.) I’m not sure how much more I can say about this film that I haven’t already said. It was my pick for Best Picture of the Year and I will be running out to get my grubby little hands on a copy of the dvd today. (When I first told you about the home release, I questioned the wisdom of releasing it two short days after the Academy Awards. I'll be curious as to whether they were able to at least slap a sticker on the package touting the FIVE Oscars the film won.)
Directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Asa Butterfield as Hugo along with Jude Law, Chloe Moretz, Sir Ben Kingsley, Ray Winstone, Sacha Baron Cohen, Emily Mortimer, Helen McCrory, Michael Stuhlbarg and Christopher Lee, Hugo is the story of a boy who lives in the walls of the Paris train station in 1931 and his friendship with a toy seller who turns out to be much more than he appears. It is a valentine to the movies and movie makers and the most perfect use of 3D you’ll probably ever see. (Never fear, I’ve seen it in 2D as well and it is also enchanting without the enhancement.)
Johnny English Reborn stars Rowan Atkinson as the accidental secret agent who doesn't know fear, or danger, in this spy film spoof. In his latest mission, Johnny English must stop a group of international assassins before they eliminate a world leader and cause global chaos. With just one shot at redemption, he will use (or misuse) the latest high-tech gadgets and every trick in his playbook to protect us all.
When a team of ruthless assassins plot to kill the Chinese premier, the only person who can stop them from plunging the world into total chaos is bumbling secret agent Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson). Somewhere deep in Asia, the veteran MI-7 spy has been training for years in anticipation of his next mission. Meanwhile, the most prominent heads of state in the world begin gathering for a conference that could have a major impact on global politics. When MI-7 receives word that the Chinese premier has become the target of some high-powered killers, it falls on Johnny English to save the day. Armed with the latest high-tech weaponry and gadgets that would make even James Bond jealous, the once-disgraced agent uncovers evidence of a massive conspiracy involving some of the world's most powerful organizations, and vows to redeem his tarnished reputation by stopping the killers before they can strike.
With Gillian Anderson, Dominic West, Rosamund Pike, Daniel Kaluuya, Richard Schiff and directed by Oliver Parker. (Mr. Thandie Newton for you trivia seekers)
Beneath the Darkness
A small-town mortician finds his darkest secret revealed in director Martin Guigui's edge-of-your-seat thriller. Everyone in Smithville, Texas, knows the name Ely Vaughn (Dennis Quaid). A former star quarterback on the high-school football team, amiable Ely went on to become the town mortician. Ely's always got a quick smile ready as he cheers on the hometown team, but two years after his wife's untimely death, he's grown increasingly reclusive. He lives in a sprawling mansion that also doubles as the local funeral home, and rumor has it that the house is haunted. For curious teens Travis (Tony Oller), Brian (Stephen Lunsford), Abby (Aimee Teegarden), and Danny (Devon Werkheiser), the temptation to find out for themselves if the stories are true prove too powerful to resist. Gazing into Ely's windows, the teens witness the silhouettes of the grieving widower and an unidentified woman dancing together, and decide to get a closer look. But it may be the last mistake they ever make, because beneath Ely's friendly facade dwells a murderous sociopath capable of unspeakable evil.
I Melt with You
Four friends come together for a reunion that leads them down a self-destructive path in this drama that plays like the much darker companion to The Hangover. Jonathan (Rob Lowe), Richard (Thomas Jane), Ron (Jeremy Piven), and Tim (Christian McKay) are four men in their mid-forties who have known each other since they went to college together. Each year, they reunite for a vacation, renting a beach house in California and engaging in as much drug- and alcohol-fueled carousing as they can tolerate. While they seem happy on the surface, in truth all four are deeply troubled; Jonathan is a doctor whose specialty is writing prescriptions for the right price, Richard is a teacher still mourning his unsuccessful career as a novelist, Ron is a commodities trader in trouble with the law, and Tim feels lost and purposeless in his life. Over the course of their holiday, the friends will be touched by an unexpected tragedy and shocked by revelations that change the way they view one another.
I Melt with You was directed by Mark Pellington (Arlington Road, The Mothman Prophecies, Henry Poole is Here) and also stars Carla Gugino, Melora Hardin and Sasha Grey.
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