Total Number of Movies in Joel’s Collection: 1,338 Page Number: 2 / 27
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The A-Team

Director: Joe Carnahan
Starring: Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Quinton Jackson, Sharlto Copley, Gerald McRaney
Genre: Thrillers, Action, Adventure
Studio: 20th Century Fox
My Rating:
Rated: PG-13
Rating: 6.8 (139,427 votes)
Release: Dec 2010
Summary: Give it up to the A-Team: they've always been good at demolishing things in big, big ways. Freed from the confines of the 1980s TV series, the 2010 blockbuster movie version allows the four members of the paramilitary squad to really amp up the mayhem to newly crazed heights. Liam Neeson plays team leader Hannibal Smith (inheriting the cigar-chomping from the show's George Peppard), and pro wrestler Quinton "Rampage" Jackson is "B.A." Baracus, the TV show's most iconic character (insert Mr. T "I pity the fool" joke here). As the vain Face, Bradley Cooper preens in convincing fashion, and "District 9" out-of-nowhere star Sharlto Copley plays the unhinged pilot "Howlin' Mad" Murdock. These boys are on the trail of some money-counterfeiting plates, from Bagdad to Germany to places in between. It would be understating it to say that the plot is not of primary importance, although Patrick Wilson has some fun as a CIA official and Jessica Biel occasionally strikes poses as Face's ex-flame, now a military officer displeased with the A-Team's extra-legal shenanigans. The storytelling is insipid and half-hearted--but when it comes to snarky dialogue and two-fisted action scenes, director Joe Carnahan is in his comfort zone. It's reasonably fun watching the working-out of such logistical puzzles as dropping a tank (with crew inside) from a plane, or scattering the main characters on a dockside as cargo containers rain down from a ship looming above them. Good times, although is it asking too much for certain basic laws of physics (if you drop a human body ten stories, for instance, it might actually sustain injuries) to be used as a guideline? But worrying about such matters isn't in the spirit of "The A-Team", which cheerfully ignores the petty concerns of credibility and logic. "--Robert Horton"
 

About a Boy

Director: Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz
Starring: Hugh Grant, Toni Collette
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Studio: Universal Studios
My Rating:
Rated: PG-13
Rating: 7.1 (99,174 votes)
Release: May 2002
Summary: A box-office smash in England, "About a Boy" went on to charm the world as another fine adaptation (following "High Fidelity") of a popular Nick Hornby novel. While "High Fidelity" transplanted its London charm to Chicago, this irresistible comedy was directed by Americans Chris and Paul Weitz ("American Pie") with its British pedigree intact. Better yet, Hugh Grant is perfectly cast as Will, a self-absorbed trust-fund slacker who tries to improve his romantic odds by preying on desperate single mothers. His cynical strategy backfires when he recruits the misfit son (Nicholas Hoult) of a suicidal mother (Toni Collette) to pose as his own son, thus proving his parental prowess to his latest single-mom target (Rachel Weisz). The kid has a warming effect on this ultimate cad, and what could have been a sappy tearjerker turns into a subtle, frequently hilarious portrait of familial quirks and elevated self-esteem. From start to finish, it's a genuine treat. "--Jeff Shannon"
 

About Time

Director: Richard Curtis
Starring: Rachel McAdams, Bill Nighy, Domhnall Gleeson, Lee Asquith-Coe, Tom Hollander, Margot Robbie, Lindsay Duncan, Catherine Steadman, Vanessa Kirby, Lisa Eichhorn, Matthew C. Martino, Lydia Wilson
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Sci Fi
Studio: Translux
My Rating:
Rated: R
Release: Nov 2013
Summary: At the age of 21, Tim Lake (Domhnall Gleeson) discovers he can travel in time... The night after another unsatisfactory New Year party, Tim's father (Bill Nighy) tells his son that the men in his family have always had the ability to travel through time. Tim can't change history, but he can change what happens and has happened in his own life-so he decides to make his world a better place...by getting a girlfriend. Sadly, that turns out not to be as easy as you might think. Moving from the Cornwall coast to London to train as a lawyer, Tim finally meets the beautiful but insecure Mary (Rachel McAdams). They fall in love, then an unfortunate time-travel incident means he's never met her at all. So they meet for the first time again-and again-but finally, after a lot of cunning time-traveling, he wins her heart.
 

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Starring: Benjamin Walker, Dominic Cooper, Anthony Mackie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Rufus Sewell
Genre: Action, Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
Studio: Abraham Productions
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 6.1 (30,851 votes)
Release: Jun 2012
Summary: At the age of 9, Abraham Lincoln witnesses his mother being killed by a vampire, Jack Barts. Some 10 years later, he unsuccessfully tries to eliminate Barts but in the process makes the acquaintance of Henry Sturgess who teaches him how to fight and what is required to kill a vampire. The quid pro quo is that Abe will kill only those vampires that Henry directs him to. Abe relocates to Springfield where he gets a job as a store clerk while he studies the law and kills vampires by night. He also meets and eventually marries the pretty Mary Todd. Many years later as President of the United States, he comes to realize that vampires are fighting with the Confederate forces. As a result he mounts his own campaign to defeat them.
 

The Abyss

Director: James Cameron
Starring: Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Michael Biehn, Leo Burmester, Todd Graff
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama
Studio: 20th Century Fox
My Rating:
Rated: PG-13
Rating: 7.6 (91,035 votes)
Release: Mar 2000
Summary: Meticulously crafted but also ponderous and predictable, James Cameron's 1989 deep-sea close-encounter epic reaffirms one of the oldest first principles of cinema: everything moves a lot more slowly underwater. Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, as formerly married petroleum engineers who still have some "issues" to work out, are drafted to assist a gung-ho Navy SEAL (Michael Biehn) with a top-secret recovery operation: a nuclear sub has been ambushed and sunk, under mysterious circumstances, in some of the deepest waters on earth, and the petro-techies have the only submersible craft capable of diving down that far. Every image and every performance is painstakingly sharp and detailed (and the computerized water creatures are lovely) but the movie's lumbering pace is ultimately lethal. It's the audience that ends up feeling waterlogged. For a guy who likes guns as much as Cameron (his next film after all, was the body-count masterpiece "Terminator 2: Judgment Day"), it's interesting that the moral balance here is weighted heavily in favor of the can-do engineers; the military types are end-justifies-the-means amoralists, just like the weasely government bureaucrats in "Aliens". "--David Chute"
 

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

Director: Tom Shadyac
Starring: Jim Carrey, Courteney Cox, Sean Young, Tone Loc, Dan Marino
Genre: Comedy
Studio: Warner Home Video
My Rating:
Rated: PG-13
Rating: 6.8 (132,984 votes)
Release: Feb 1994
Summary: To be a Pet Detective, you have to understand both the criminals and animals. Ace Ventura goes even further... He behaves like a criminal animal. When a football team's mascot (a dolphin) is stolen just before the Superbowl, Ace Ventura is put on the case. Now, who would want to steal a dolphin, and why?
 

Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls

Director: Steve Oedekerk
Starring: Jim Carrey, Ian Mcneice, Simon Callow, Maynard Eziashi, Bob Gunton
Genre: Comedy
Studio: Warner Bros.
My Rating:
Rated: PG-13
Rating: 6.0 (99,076 votes)
Release: Nov 1995
Summary: Ace Ventura, emerging from self-imposed exile in a remote Himalayan hideaway, travels to Africa with explorer Fulton Greenwall to find a sacred bat which is told will avert a war between with Wachootoo and Wachati tribes. Of course, when Ace gets involved, all hell breaks loose...
 

The Act of Killing

Director: Joshua Oppenheimer
Starring: Haji Anif, Syamsul Arifin, Sakhyan Asmara, Anwars Congo, Jusuf Kalla
Genre: Documentary, Crime, History
Studio: Final Cut for Real
My Rating:
Rated: Unrated
Rating: 8.2 (1,979 votes)
Release: Jul 2013
Summary: In a place where killers are celebrated as heroes, these filmmakers challenge unrepentant death-squad leaders to dramatize their role in genocide. The result is a surreal, cinematic journey, not only into the memories and imaginations of mass murderers, but also into a frighteningly banal regime of corruption and impunity
 

Adaptation

Director: Spike Jonze
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Tilda Swinton
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Studio: IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 7.7 (102,307 votes)
Release: Jan 2003
Summary: Twisty brilliance from screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and director Spike Jonze, the team who created "Being John Malkovich". Nicolas Cage returns to form with a funny, sad, and sneaky performance as Charlie Kaufman, a self-loathing screenwriter who has been hired to adapt Susan Orlean's book "The Orchid Thief" into a screenplay. Frustrated and infatuated by Orlean's elegant but plotless book (which is largely a rumination on flowers), Kaufman begins to write a screenplay about himself trying to write a screenplay about "The Orchid Thief", all the while hounded by his twin brother Donald (Cage again), who's cheerfully writing the kind of formulaic action movie that Kaufman finds repugnant. By its conclusion, "Adaptation" is the most artistically ambitious, most utterly cynical, and most uncategorizable movie ever to come out of Hollywood. Also starring Meryl Streep (as Susan Orlean), Chris Cooper, Tilda Swinton, and Brian Cox; superb performances throughout. "--Bret Fetzer"
 

Addicted to Love

Director: Griffin Dunne
Starring: Meg Ryan, Matthew Broderick, Kelly Preston, Tchéky Karyo, Maureen Stapleton
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Studio: Warner Home Video
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 4.8 (112 votes)
Release: Oct 1997
Summary: Actor-director Griffin Dunne made his filmmaking debut with this ethically ambiguous and not-very-funny movie about a pair of jilted lovers (Meg Ryan and Matthew Broderick) who conspire to break up a relationship between their ex-sweethearts (Tchéky Karyo and Kelly Preston). Part classic screwball comedy, part nightmare along the lines of Martin Scorsese's "After Hours" (in which Dunne starred), part tribute to Hitchcock's "Rear Window", "Addicted to Love" is all over the map and seriously hampered by the sheer, unwarranted nastiness aimed at the innocent characters played by Karyo and Preston. "--Tom Keogh"
 

The Adjustment Bureau

Director: George Nolfi
Starring: Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Florence Kastriner
Genre: Thrillers
Studio: Universal Studios
My Rating:
Rated: PG-13
Rating: 7.0 (135,117 votes)
Release: Jun 2011
Summary: Do we control our destiny, or do unseen forces manipulate us? A man glimpses the future Fate has planned for him and realizes he wants something else. To get it, he must pursue across, under and through the streets of modern-day New York the only woman he's ever loved. On the brink of winning a seat in the U.S. Senate, ambitious politician David Norris (Damon) meets beautiful contemporary ballet dancer Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt) - a woman like none he's ever known. But just as he realizes he's falling for her, mysterious men conspire to keep the two apart. David learns he is up against the agents of Fate itself - the men of The Adjustment Bureau - who will do everything in their considerable power to prevent David and Elise from being together. In the face of overwhelming odds, he must either let her go and accept a predetermined path...or risk everything to defy Fate and be with her.
 

Admission

Director: Paul Weitz
Starring: Tina Fey, Ann Harada, Ben Levin, Dan Levy, Maggie Keenan-Bolger, Gloria Reuben, Paul Rudd, Wallace Shawn, Elaine Kussack, Christopher Evan Welch, Michael Genadry, Juliet Brett, John Brodsky, Camille Branton, Sarita Choudhury, Lily Tomlin, Travaris Spears, Nat Wolff
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Studio: Focus Features
My Rating:
Rated: PG-13
Rating: 5.6 (15,048 votes)
Release: Mar 2013
Summary: Straitlaced Princeton University admissions officer Portia Nathan (Tina Fey) is caught off-guard when she makes a recruiting visit to an alternative high school overseen by her former college classmate, the freewheeling John Pressman (Paul Rudd). Pressman has surmised that Jeremiah (Nat Wolff), his gifted yet very unconventional student, might well be the son that Portia secretly gave up for adoption many years ago. Soon, Portia finds herself bending the rules for Jeremiah, putting at risk the life she thought she always wanted -- but in the process finding her way to a surprising and exhilarating life and romance she never dreamed of having.
 

Adventureland

Director: Greg Mottola
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds, Kelsey Ford, Michael Zegen
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Studio: Miramax
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 6.9 (89,006 votes)
Release: Aug 2009
Summary: A sweet and slap-happy mix of indie coming-of-age drama and Judd Apatow’s scatological but heartfelt manchild comedies, Greg Mottola’s Adventureland is a winning look at the pleasures and frustrations of dead-end jobs and teenage kicks as viewed through a filter of mid-‘80s pop culture. The underutilized and always watchable Jesse Eisenberg (The Squid and the Whale) is a sheltered, introspective New York college grad who discovers that his parents’ financial woes will not only quash his dream of a summer in Europe (to enjoy its more “sexually permissive” nations) but require a move to Pittsburgh, where he lands a job at a dilapidated amusement park. There, he’s thrown in with a motley crew of eccentrics, small-town types and a few genuine free spirits, most notably co-worker Em (Kristen Stewart), whose complicated past proves irresistible to his repressed psyche. Mottola, who directed Superbad and episodes of the well-loved Freaks and Geeks, and who once worked in a similar park as a teen, doesn’t shy from the crude laughs that make Apatow’s features so popular, but he tempers it with a wistful tone and layered characters that hew closer to his earliest work, The Daytrippers. Though ill-matched at first, Eisenberg and Stewart make a likable on-screen couple, and they’re well-supported by a terrific cast that includes such die-hard scene-stealers as Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig as the park’s offbeat owners, Martin Starr as a Russian lit aficionado, and Ryan Reynolds as a former town tamer, now reduced to working as the park’s handyman. A soundtrack performed by underground faves Yo La Tengo and filled with a smart mix of hip cuts (Hüsker Dü, the New York Dolls, the Replacements) and period faves (Falco’s “Rock Me Amadeus”) underscores the film’s blend of tentative emotions and broad laughs. -- Paul Gaita
 

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

Director: Terry Gilliam
Starring: John Neville, Eric Idle, Sarah Polley, Oliver Reed, Charles McKeown, Winston Dennis, Jack Purvis, Valentina Cortese, Jonathan Pryce, Bill Paterson, Peter Jeffrey, Uma Thurman, Alison Steadman, Ray Cooper, Don Henderson
Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Foreign, Science Fiction
Studio: Sony Pictures
My Rating:
Rated: PG
Rating: 6
Release: Oct 1989
Summary: The Adventures of Baron Munchausen stars John Neville, Eric Idle and Uma Thurman. Neville is the eccentric Munchausen, an aristocrat who relies on the power of his imagination - and a crackpot band of henchmen - to defend their city from plunder. Idle plays the loyal Berthold, the world's fastest man who runs all the way to Spain and back in under an hour to save the Baron's neck, and who hilariously outruns a speeding bullet! When Munchausen's not collaborating with his screwball associates, he can be found walking on air - literally - with the lusciously beautiful Venus (Thurman).
 

After Earth

Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Starring: Will Smith, Jaden Smith, Sophie Okonedo, Zoë Kravitz, Glenn Morshower, Chris Geere, Diego Klattenhoff, David Denman, Lincoln Lewis
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Studio: Columbia Pictures
My Rating:
Rated: PG-13
Release: Jun 2013
Summary: One thousand years after cataclysmic events forced humanity's escape from Earth, Nova Prime has become mankind's new home. Legendary General Cypher Raige returns from an extended tour of duty to his estranged family, ready to be a father to his 13-year-old son, Kitai. When an asteroid storm damages Cypher and Kitai's craft, they crash-land on a now unfamiliar and dangerous Earth. As his father lies dying in the cockpit, Kitai must trek across the hostile terrain to recover their rescue beacon. His whole life, Kitai has wanted nothing more than to be a soldier like his father. Today, he gets his chance.
 

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry

Director: Alison Klayman
Starring: Ai Weiwei, Danqing Chen
Genre: Documentary
Studio: MPI HOME VIDEO
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 7.5 (1,589 votes)
Release: Jul 2012
Summary: Ai Weiwei is known for many things – great architecture, subversive in-your-face art, and political activism. He has also called for greater transparency on the part of the Chinese state. Director Alison Klayman chronicles the complexities of Ai’s life for three years, beginning with his rise to public prominence via blog and Twitter after he questioned the deaths of more than 5,000 students in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. The record continues through his widely publicized arrest in Beijing in April of 2011. As Ai prepares various works of art for major international exhibitions, his activism heats up, and his run-ins with China’s authorities become more and more frequent.
 

Airplane!

Director: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker
Starring: Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Leslie Nielsen, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Lloyd Bridges
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Studio: Paramount
My Rating:
Rated: PG
Rating: 7.8 (101,745 votes)
Release: Dec 2005
Summary: The quintessential movie spoof that spawned an entire genre of parody films, the original "Airplane!" still holds up as one of the brightest comedic gems of the '80s, not to mention of cinema itself (it ranked in the top 5 of "Entertainment Weekly"'s list of the 100 funniest movies ever made). The humor may be low and obvious at times, but the jokes keep coming at a rapid-fire clip and its targets--primarily the lesser lights of '70s cinema, from disco films to star-studded disaster epics--are more than worthy for send-up. If you've seen even one of the overblown "Airport" movies then you know the plot: the crew of a filled-to-capacity jetliner is wiped out and it's up to a plucky stewardess and a shell-shocked fighter pilot to land the plane. Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty are the heroes who have a history that includes a meet-cute à la "Saturday Night Fever", a surf scene right out of "From Here to Eternity", a Peace Corps trip to Africa to teach the natives the benefits of Tupperware and basketball, a war-ravaged recovery room with a G.I. who thinks he's Ethel Merman (a hilarious cameo)--and those are just the flashbacks! The jokes gleefully skirt the boundaries of bad taste (pilot Peter Graves to a juvenile cockpit visitor: "Joey, have you ever seen a grown man naked?"), with the high (low?) point being Hagerty's intimate involvement with the blow-up automatic pilot doll, but they'll have you rolling on the floor. The film launched the careers of collaborators Jim Abrahams ("Big Business"), David Zucker ("Ruthless People"), and Jerry Zucker ("Ghost"), as well as revitalized such B-movie actors as Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Robert Stack, and Leslie Nielsen, who built a second career on films like this. A vital part of any video collection. "--Mark Englehart"
 

Akira

Director: Katsuhiro Ôtomo
Starring: Nozomu Sasaki, Mami Koyama, Mitsuo Iwata, Tesshô Genda, Hiroshi Ôtake
Genre: Anime & Manga
Studio: Geneon [Pioneer]
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 8.0 (63,239 votes)
Release: Jul 2001
Summary: Artist-writer Katsuhiro Ôtomo began telling the story of Akira as a comic book series in 1982 but took a break from 1986 to 1988 to write, direct, supervise, and design this animated film version. Set in 2019, the film richly imagines the new metropolis of Neo-Tokyo, which is designed from huge buildings down to the smallest details of passing vehicles or police uniforms. Two disaffected orphan teenagers--slight, resentful Tetsuo and confident, breezy Kaneda--run with a biker gang, but trouble grows when Tetsuo start to resent the way Kaneda always has to rescue him. Meanwhile, a group of scientists, military men, and politicians wonder what to do with a collection of withered children who possess enormous psychic powers, especially the mysterious, rarely seen Akira, whose awakening might well have caused the end of the old world. Tetsuo is visited by the children, who trigger the growth of psychic and physical powers that might make him a superman or a supermonster. As befits a distillation of 1,318 pages of the story so far, "Akira" is overstuffed with character, incident, and detail. However, it piles up astonishing set pieces: the chases and shootouts (amazingly kinetic, amazingly bloody) benefit from minute cartoon detail that extends to the surprised or shocked faces of the tiniest extra; the Tetsuo monster alternately looks like a billion-gallon scrotal sac or a Tex Avery mutation of the monster from "The Quatermass Experiment"; and the finale--which combines flashbacks to more innocent days with a destruction of Neo City and the creation of a new universe--is one of the most mind-bending in all sci-fi cinema. "--Kim Newman"
 

Aladdin

Director: Ron Clements, John Musker
Starring: Scott Weinger, Robin Williams, Linda Larkin, Jonathan Freeman, Frank Welker, Gilbert Gottfried, Douglas Seale, Charles Adler, Corey Burton, Jim Cummings
Genre: Adventure, Animation, Music, Family
Studio: Walt Disney Home Entertainment
My Rating:
Rated: G
Rating: 7
Release: Nov 1992
Summary: Aladdin is a street-urchin who lives in a large and busy town long ago with his faithful monkey friend Abu. When Princess Jasmine gets tired of being forced to remain in the palace that overlooks the city, she sneaks out to the marketplace, where she accidentally meets Aladdin. Under the orders of the evil Jafar (the sultan's advisor), Aladdin is thrown in jail and becomes caught up in Jafar's plot to rule the land with the aid of a mysterious lamp. Legend has it that only a person who is a "diamond in the rough" can retrieve the lamp from the Cave of Wonders. Aladdin might fight that description, but that's not enough to marry the princess, who must (by law) marry a prince.
 

Ali

Director: Michael Mann
Starring: Will Smith, Candy Ann Brown, LeVar Burton, David Cubitt, Victoria Dillard
Genre: Biography, Drama, Sports
Studio: Sony Pictures
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 7.5 (166,635 votes)
Release: Dec 2001
Summary: "Ali" is a rush of charm, violence, and well-crafted mythmaking sure to enthrall. From the unforgettable surge of the opening--a 10-minute montage of sheer brilliance where formative scenes from the early life of Cassius Clay float along on the rapture of a live performance by Sam Cooke in a Harlem nightclub--through to Muhammad Ali's departure for Zaire to fight George Foreman, Michael Mann's homage is mostly crisp and fleet-footed. As Clay/Ali, Will Smith acquits himself marvelously due in large part to his uncanny re-creation of Ali's most famous weapon, his mesmerizing voice. Indeed, the best scenes throughout showcase Ali's verbal rather than pugilistic sparring; whether with his entourage (notably Jamie Foxx), Howard Cosell (Jon Voight), or Don King (Mykelti Williamson), Michael Mann's Ali has the same authoritative wit and ability to surprise that so disarmed the public. The news conferences and behind-the-scenes banter are exquisitely re-created; not so Ali's flaws. Mann's attempt to depict Ali's womanizing, his dubious affiliation with the Nation of Islam, and his insatiable need for the spotlight seems halfhearted and laborious in comparison to the film's enlivened adoration of its subject. As the sluggish second half of the film betrays, "Ali" is at its impressionistic best when it's in awe rather than when it explains. "--Fionn Meade"
 

Alice In Wonderland

Director: Wilfred Jackson, Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske
Starring: Kathryn Beaumont, Verna Felton, Ed Wynn, Richard Haydn, Sterling Holloway, Jerry Colonna, J. Pat O'Malley, Bill Thompson, Heather Angel, Joseph Kearns, Larry Grey, Queenie Leonard, Dink Trout, Doris Lloyd, James MacDonald
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Animation, Science Fiction, Family
Studio: Walt Disney
My Rating:
Rated: G
Rating: 6
Release: Jul 1951
Summary: On a golden afternoon, young Alice follows a White Rabbit, who disappears down a nearby rabbit hole. Quickly following him, she tumbles into the burrow - and enters the merry, topsy-turvy world of Wonderland! Memorable songs and whimsical escapades highlight Alice's journey, which culminates in a madcap encounter with the Queen of Hearts - and her army of playing cards!
 

Alien Quadrilogy

Director: David Fincher, James Cameron, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Ridley Scott
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, Michael Biehn, Winona Ryder
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Studio: 20th Century Fox
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 7.3 (61,347 votes)
Release: Dec 2003
Summary: The "Alien Quadrilogy" is a nine-disc boxed set devoted to the four "Alien" films. Although previously available on DVD as the "Alien Legacy", here they have been repackaged with vastly more extras and with upgraded sound and picture. For anyone who hasn't been in hypersleep for the last 25 years, this series needs no introduction, though for the first time each film now comes in both original and "special edition" form.
"Alien" (1979) was so perfect it didn't need fixing, and Ridley Scott's 2003 director's cut is fiddling for the sake of fiddling. Watch it once, then return to the majestic, perfectly paced original. Conversely, the special edition of James Cameron's "Aliens" (1986) is the definitive version, though it's nice to finally have the theatrical cut on DVD for comparison. Most interesting is the alternative "Alien 3" (1992). This isn't a "director's cut"--David Fincher refused to have any involvement with this release--but a 1991 work-print that runs 29 minutes longer than the theatrical version, and has now been restored, remastered, and finished off with (unfortunately) cheap new CGI. Still, it's truly fascinating, offering a different insight into a flawed masterpiece. The expanded opening is visually breathtaking, the central firestorm is much longer, and a subplot involving Paul McGann's character adds considerable depth to story. The ending is also subtly but significantly different. "Alien: Resurrection" (1997) always was a mess with a handful of brilliant scenes, and the special edition just makes it eight minutes longer.
The "Alien Quadrilogy" offers the first and fourth films with DTS soundtracks, the others having still fine Dolby Digital 5.1 presentation. All four films sound fantastic, with much low-level detail revealed for the first time. Each is anamorphically enhanced at the correct original aspect ratio, and the prints and transfers are superlative. Every film offers a commentary track that lends insight into the creative process--though the Scott-only commentary and isolated music score from the first "Alien" DVD release are missing here.
Each movie is complemented by a separate disc packed with hours of seriously detailed documentaries (all presented in full-screen with clips letterboxed), thousands of photos, production stills, and storyboards, giving a level of inside information for the dedicated buff only surpassed by the "Lord of the Rings" extended DVD sets. A ninth DVD compiles miscellaneous material, including an hourlong documentary and even all the extras from the old "Alien" laserdisc. "Exhaustive" hardly beings to describe the "Alien Quadrilogy", a set that establishes the new DVD benchmark for retrospective releases and looks unlikely to be surpassed for some time. "--Gary S. Dalkin"
 

All Is Lost

Director: J.C. Chandor
Starring: Robert Redford
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama
Studio: Before The Door Pictures
My Rating:
Rated: PG-13
Release: Oct 2013
Summary: Deep into a solo voyage in the Indian Ocean, an unnamed man (Redford) wakes to find his 39-foot yacht taking on water after a collision with a shipping container left floating on the high seas. With his navigation equipment and radio disabled, the man sails unknowingly into the path of a violent storm. Despite his success in patching the breached hull, his mariner's intuition and a strength that belies his age, the man barely survives the tempest. Using only a sextant and nautical maps to chart his progress, he is forced to rely on ocean currents to carry him into a shipping lane in hopes of hailing a passing vessel. But with the sun unrelenting, sharks circling and his meager supplies dwindling, the ever-resourceful sailor soon finds himself staring his mortality in the face.
 

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane

Director: Jonathan Levine
Starring: Amber Heard, Anson Mount, Michael Welch, Whitney Able, Edwin Hodge, Aaron Himelstein, Luke Grimes, Melissa Price, Adam Powell, Peyton Hayslip, Brooke Bloom, Robert Earl Keen
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Mystery
Studio: Occupant Films
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 5.7 (14,199 votes)
Release: Sep 2006
Summary: The orphan Mandy Lane is a beautiful, virgin and pure teenager raised by her aunt, desired by her schoolmates and a close friend of the outcast Emmet. After the death of their high school mate in a pool party, Mandy befriends Chloe, Marlin, Red, Bird and Jake. Red invites the group for a weekend party in the isolated ranch of his family, with all the boys disputing who would succeed in having sex with Mandy Lane. They meet the henchman Garth that takes care of the ranch and he asks the group to go easy on the drugs and booze. In the middle of the night, a stranger wearing a hood attacks Marlin in the barn; when Jake seeks her out, he faces the killer, beginning a night of bloodshed and terror.
 

Almost Famous

Director: Cameron Crowe
Starring: Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, Kate Hudson, Jason Lee, Patrick Fugit, Zooey Deschanel, Michael Angarano, Noah Taylor, John Fedevich, Mark Kozelek, Fairuza Balk, Anna Paquin, Olivia Rosewood, Jimmy Fallon, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Genre: Drama, Music
Studio: Dreamworks Skg
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 4.36
Release: Mar 2001
Comments: Experience it. Enjoy it. Just don't fall for it.
Summary: "Almost Famous" is the movie Cameron Crowe has been waiting a lifetime to tell. The fictionalization of Crowe's days as a teenage reporter for "Creem" and "Rolling Stone" has all the well-written characters and wonderful "movie moments" that we expect from Crowe ("Jerry Maguire"), but the film has an intangible something extra--an insider's touch that will turn the film into "the" ode to '70s rock & roll for years to come. We are introduced to Crowe's alter ego, William Miller (Patrick Fugit), at home, where his progressive mom (Frances McDormand, just superb) has outlawed rock music and sister Anita (Zooey Deschanel) has slipped him LPs that will "set his mind free." Following the wisdom of "Creem"'s disheveled editor, Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman in an instant-classic performance), Miller gets on the inside with the up-and-coming band Stillwater (a fictionalized mixture of the Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin, and others). A simple visit with the band turns into a three-week, life-altering odyssey into the heyday of American rock. Of the characters he meets on the road, the two most important are groupie extraordinaire Penny Lane (Kate Hudson in a star-making performance) and Stillwater's enigmatic lead guitarist (Billy Crudup), who keeps stringing Miller along for an interview. From the handwritten credits (done by Crowe) to the bittersweet finale, Crowe's comedic valentine is an indelible, heartbreaking romance of music, women, and the privilege of youth. "--Doug Thomas"
 

Amadeus

Director: Milos Forman
Starring: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Roy Dotrice, Simon Callow
Genre: Biography, Drama, Music
Studio: Warner Home Video
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 8.4 (166,299 votes)
Release: Sep 1984
Summary: A note-perfect cinematic event whose immortality was assured from its opening night, "Amadeus" is an unlikely candidate for the director's-cut treatment. Like one of Mozart's operas, the multiple Oscar-winning theatrical version seemed perfectly formed from the outset--ideal casting, costumes, sets, cinematography, lighting, screenplay, music, music, music--so the reinstatement of an extra 20 minutes simply risks adding "too many notes." Yet though this extended cut can hardly be said to improve a picture that needed no improvement, it does at least flesh out a couple of small subplots and shed new light on certain key scenes. Here we learn why Constanze Mozart bears such ill will towards Salieri when she discovers him at her husband's deathbed, and we see deeper into the reasons why Mozart has no students. The structure of the picture is otherwise unaltered.
The director's cut of "Amadeus" finally accords this masterful work the DVD treatment it deserves. The handsome anamorphic widescreen picture is accompanied by a choice of Dolby 5.1 or Dolby stereo sound options, and it's all contained on one side of the disc. Director Milos Forman and writer Peter Shaffer provide a chatty though sporadic commentary, but they're obviously still too mesmerized by the movie to do much more than offer the odd anecdote. The second disc contains an excellent new hour-long "making of" documentary, with contributions from Forman, Shaffer, Sir Neville Marriner, and all the main actors, taking in the scriptwriting, choice of music, casting, and problems involved in filming in Communist Czechoslovakia with half the crew and extras working for the Secret Police. "--Mark Walker"
 

The Amazing Spider-Man

Director: Marc Webb
Starring: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Martin Sheen
Genre: Action, Fantasy, Thriller
Studio: Columbia Pictures
My Rating:
Rated: PG-13
Rating: 7.2 (232,897 votes)
Release: Jul 2012
Summary: Like most teenagers, Peter is trying to figure out who he is and how he got to be the person he is today. Peter is also finding his way with his first high school crush, Gwen Stacy, and together, they struggle with love, commitment, and secrets. As Peter discovers a mysterious briefcase that belonged to his father, he begins a quest to understand his parents' disappearance - leading him directly to Oscorp and the lab of Dr Curt Connors, his father's former partner. As Spider-Man is set on a collision course with Connors' alter-ego, The Lizard, Peter will make life-altering choices to use his powers and shape his destiny to become a hero.
 

Amélie

Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, Noah Segan
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
Studio: Alliance (Universal)
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 7.6 (218,254 votes)
Release: Apr 2001
Summary: Perhaps the most charming movie of all time, "Amélie" is certainly one of the top 10. The title character (the bashful and impish Audrey Tautou) is a single waitress who decides to help other lonely people fix their lives. Her widowed father yearns to travel but won't, so to inspire the old man she sends his garden gnome on a tour of the world; with whispered gossip, she brings together two cranky regulars at her café; she reverses the doorknobs and reprograms the speed dial of a grocer who's mean to his assistant. Gradually she realizes her own life needs fixing, and a chance meeting leads to her most elaborate stratagem of all. This is a deeply wonderful movie, an illuminating mix of magic and pragmatism. Fans of the director's previous films ("Delicatessen", "The City of Lost Children") will not be disappointed; newcomers will be delighted. "--Bret Fetzer"
 

The American

Director: Anton Corbijn
Starring: George Clooney, Thekla Reuten, Violante Placido, Paolo Bonacelli, Irina Björklund
Genre: Crime, Drama
Studio: Focus Features
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 6.4 (56,244 votes)
Release: Sep 2010
Summary: Alone among assassins, Jack is a master craftsman. When a job in Sweden ends more harshly than expected for this American abroad, he vows to his contact Pavel that his next assignment will be his last. Jack reports to the Italian countryside, where he holes up in a small town and relishes being away from death for a spell. The assignment, as specified by a Belgian woman, Mathilde, is in the offing as a weapon is constructed. Surprising himself, Jack seeks out the friendship of local priest Father Benedetto and pursues romance with local woman Clara. But by stepping out of the shadows, Jack may be tempting fate.
 

American Beauty

Director: Sam Mendes
Starring: Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Chris Cooper, Peter Gallagher, Sam Robards
Genre: Drama
Studio: Dreamworks Video
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 6.0 (14 votes)
Release: Oct 2000
Summary: From its first gliding aerial shot of a generic suburban street, "American Beauty" moves with a mesmerizing confidence and acuity epitomized by Kevin Spacey's calm narration. Spacey is Lester Burnham, a harried Everyman whose midlife awakening is the spine of the story, and his very first lines hook us with their teasing fatalism--like "Sunset Boulevard"'s Joe Gillis, Burnham tells us his story from beyond the grave.
It's an audacious start for a film that justifies that audacity. Weaving social satire, domestic tragedy, and whodunit into a single package, Alan Ball's first theatrical script dares to blur generic lines and keep us off balance, winking seamlessly from dark, scabrous comedy to deeply moving drama. The Burnham family joins the cinematic short list of great dysfunctional American families, as Lester is pitted against his manic, materialistic realtor wife, Carolyn (Annette Bening, making the most of a mostly unsympathetic role) and his sullen, contemptuous teenaged daughter, Jane (Thora Birch, utterly convincing in her edgy balance of self-absorption and wistful longing). Into their lives come two catalytic outsiders. A young cheerleader (Mena Suvari) jolts Lester into a sexual epiphany that blooms into a second adolescence. And an eerily calm young neighbor (Wes Bentley) transforms both Lester and Jane with his canny influence.
Credit another big-screen newcomer, English theatrical director Sam Mendes, with expertly juggling these potentially disjunctive elements into a superb ensemble piece that achieves a stylized pace without lapsing into transparent self-indulgence. Mendes has shrewdly insured his success with a solid crew of stage veterans, yet he's also made an inspired discovery in Bentley, whose Ricky Fitts becomes a fulcrum for both plot and theme. Cinematographer Conrad Hall's sumptuous visual design further elevates the film, infusing the beige interiors of the Burnhams' lives with vivid bursts of deep crimson, the color of roses--and of blood. "--Sam Sutherland"
 

American Gangster

Director: Ridley Scott
Starring: Russell Crowe, Denzel Washington, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Josh Brolin, Lymari Nadal, Ted Levine, Roger Guenveur Smith, John Hawkes, RZA, Carla Gugino, Common, T.I., Cuba Gooding Jr., Yul Vazquez, Malcolm Goodwin, Ruby Dee, Ruben Santiago-Hudson
Genre: Drama, Action, Thriller, Crime
Studio: Universal Studios
My Rating:
Rated: Unrated
Rating: 7.8 (218,451 votes)
Release: Nov 2007
Summary: Following the death of his employer and mentor, Bumpy Johnson, Frank Lucas establishes himself as the number one importer of heroin in the Harlem district of Manhattan. He does so by buying heroin directly from the source in South East Asia and he comes up with a unique way of importing the drugs into the United States. Based on a true story.
 

American History X

Director: Tony Kaye
Starring: Edward Norton, Edward Furlong, Beverly D'Angelo, Avery Brooks, Jennifer Lien
Genre: Drama, Crime
Studio: New Line Home Video
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 6.9 (224 votes)
Release: Feb 1999
Summary: Derek Vineyard is paroled after serving 3 years in prison for killing two thugs who tried to break into/steal his truck. Through his brother, Danny Vineyard's narration, we learn that before going to prison, Derek was a skinhead and the leader of a violent white supremacist gang that committed acts of racial crime throughout L.A. and his actions greatly influenced Danny. Reformed and fresh out of prison, Derek severs contact with the gang and becomes determined to keep Danny from going down the same violent path as he did.
 

American Hustle (screener)

Director: David O. Russell
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Louis C.K., Jennifer Lawrence, Alessandro Nivola, Dawn Olivieri, Elisabeth Röhm, Michael Peña, Jack Huston, Erica McDermott, Robert De Niro, Colleen Camp, Shea Whigham, Saïd Taghmaoui
Genre: Crime, Drama
Studio: Atlas Entertainment
My Rating:
Rated: R
Release: Dec 2013
Summary: A fictional film set in the alluring world of one of the most stunning scandals to rock our nation, American Hustle tells the story of brilliant con man Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale), who along with his equally cunning and seductive British partner Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) is forced to work for a wild FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper). DiMaso pushes them into a world of Jersey powerbrokers and mafia that's as dangerous as it is enchanting. Jeremy Renner is Carmine Polito, the passionate, volatile, New Jersey political operator caught between the con-artists and Feds. Irving's unpredictable wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence) could be the one to pull the thread that brings the entire world crashing down.
 

American Pie

Director: Paul Weitz, Chris Weitz
Starring: Jason Biggs, Chris Klein, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Alyson Hannigan, Shannon Elizabeth
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Studio: Universal Pictures
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 8.3 (60,879 votes)
Release: Dec 1999
Summary: Anyone who's watched just about any teenage film knows that the greatest evil in this world isn't chemical warfare, ethnic cleansing, or even the nuclear bomb. The worst crime known to man? Why, virginity, of course. As we've learned from countless films--from "Summer of '42" to "Risky Business"--virginity is a criminal burden that one must shed oneself of as quickly as possible. And while many of these films have given the topic a bad name, "American Pie" quietly sweeps in and gives sex some of its dignity back. Dignity, you may say? How can a film that highlights intercourse with fruit pies, premature ejaculation broadcasted across the Internet, and the gratuitous "gross-out" shots restore the dignity of a genre that's been encumbered with such heavyweights as "Porky's" and "Losin' It"? The plot may be typical, with four high school friends swearing to "score" by prom, yet the film rises above the muck with its superior cast, successful and sweet humor, and some actually rather retro values about the meaning and importance of sex. Jason Biggs, Chris Klein, Thomas Ian Nicholas, and Eddie Kaye Thomas make up the odd quartet of pals determined to woo, lie, and beg their way to manhood. The young women they pursue are wary girlfriend Vicky (Tara Reid), choir girl Heather (Mena Suvari), band geek Michelle (Alyson Hannigan), and just about any other female who is willing and able. Natasha Lyonne as Jessica, playing a similar role as in "Slums of Beverly Hills", is the general adviser to the crowd (when Vicky tells her "I want it to be the right time, the right place," Jessica responds, "It's not a space shuttle launch, it's "sex""). The comedic timing hits the mark--especially in the deliberately awkward scenes between Jim (Biggs) and his father (Eugene Levy). And, of course, lessons are learned in this genuinely funny film, which will probably please the adult crowd even more than it will the teenage one. "--Jenny Brown"
 

American Pie 2

Director: J.B. Rogers
Starring: Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott, Shannon Elizabeth, Alyson Hannigan, Chris Klein
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Studio: Universal Studios
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 8.3 (60,879 votes)
Release: Jan 2002
Summary: To the horror of prudes everywhere, "American Pie 2" is even funnier than its popular predecessor, pushing the R rating with such unabashed ribaldry that you'll either be appalled or surprised by its defiant celebration of the young-adult male libido. Females will be equally shocked or delighted, because like "American Pie" this appealing, character-based comedy puts the women in control while offering a front-row view of horny guys in all their dubious glory. Which is to say, "American Pie" is mostly about sex--or, to be more specific, breasts, genitalia, "potential" lesbianism, blue silicone sex toys, crude methods of seduction, "the rule of three" (just watch the movie), a shower of "champagne," phone sex, tantric sex, and, oh yeah... superglue.
In the case of college freshman Jim (Jason Biggs), performance anxiety plagues his upcoming reunion with sexy Czech exchange student Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth), but his buddies from "American Pie" have a solution: rent a Lake Michigan beach house for the summer, throw wild parties to lure the local "hotties," and score big-time. "Beach Party" this ain't: blessed with a complete cast reunion from "AP1" (including Eugene Levy as Jim's dad), this sequel is anything but innocent, and with the exception of drugs (which are conspicuously absent), pretty much anything goes. The gags are almost nonstop, and director J.B. Rogers (recovering from his debut debacle "Say It Isn't So") handles them with laudable precision, allowing his young cast (particularly Biggs, who epitomizes comedic good sportsmanship) to run with lines that most people wouldn't dare utter aloud. The result is a liberating and eminently good-natured comedy that needn't apologize for its one-track mind. "--Jeff Shannon"
 

The American President

Director: Rob Reiner
Starring: Michael Douglas, Annette Bening, Michael J. Fox, Martin Sheen, Anna Deavere Smith, Shawna Waldron, Samantha Mathis, David Paymer, Richard Dreyfuss, Nina Siemaszko, Wendie Malick, Beau Billingslea, Gail Strickland, Joshua Malina, Clement von Franckenstein, John Mahoney, John Mahon
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Studio: Warner Home Video
My Rating:
Rated: PG-13
Release: Aug 1995
Summary: Widowed U.S. president Andrew Shepherd, one of the world's most powerful men, can have anything he wants -- and what he covets most is Sydney Ellen Wade, a Washington lobbyist. But Shepherd's attempts at courting her spark wild rumors and decimate his approval ratings.
 

American Psycho

Director: Mary Harron
Starring: Christian Bale, Justin Theroux, Josh Lucas, Bill Sage, Chloë Sevigny
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Studio: Lions Gate
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 6
Release: Jun 2005
Summary: The Bret Easton Ellis novel "American Psycho", a dark, violent satire of the "me" culture of Ronald Reagan's 1980s, is certainly one of the most controversial books of the '90s, and that notoriety fueled its bestseller status. This smart, savvy adaptation by Mary Harron ("I Shot Andy Warhol") may be able to ride the crest of the notoriety; prior to the film's release, Harron fought a ratings battle (ironically, for depictions of sex rather than violence), but at the time the director stated, "We're rescuing [the book] from its own bad reputation." Harron and co-screenwriter Guinevere Turner ("Go Fish") overcome many of the objections of Ellis's novel by keeping the most extreme violence offscreen (sometimes just barely), suggesting the reign of terror of yuppie killer Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) with splashes of blood and personal souvenirs. Bale is razor sharp as the blank corporate drone, a preening tiger in designer suits whose speaking voice is part salesman, part self-help guru, and completely artificial. Carrying himself with the poised confidence of a male model, he spends his days in a numbing world of status-symbol one-upmanship and soul-sapping small talk, but breaks out at night with smirking explosions of homicide, accomplished with the fastidious care of a hopeless obsessive. The film's approach to this mayhem is simultaneously shocking and discreet; even Bateman's outrageous naked charge with a chainsaw is most notable for the impossibly polished and gleaming instrument of death. Harron's film is a hilarious, cheerfully insidious hall of mirrors all pointed inward, slowly cracking as the portrait becomes increasingly grotesque and insane. "--Sean Axmaker"
 

American Reunion

Director: Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg
Starring: Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan, Chris Klein, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Tara Reid
Genre: Comedy
Studio: Universal Pictures
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 7.2 (39,700 votes)
Release: Apr 2012
Summary: Over a decade has passed and the gang return to East Great Falls, Michigan, for the weekend. They will discover how their lives have developed as they gather for their high school reunion. How has life treated Michelle, Jim, Heather, Oz, Kevin, Vicky, Finch, Stifler, and Stifler's mom? In the summer of 1999, it was four boys on a quest to lose their virginity. Now Kara is a cute high school senior looking for the perfect guy to lose her virginity to.
 

American: The Bill Hicks Story

Director: Matt Harlock
Starring: Kevin Booth, John Farneti, Bill Hicks, Lynn Hicks, Mary Hicks
Genre: Documentary, Biography
Studio: 2 Entertain
My Rating:
Rated: Unrated
Rating: 7.7 (3,014 votes)
Release: Apr 2011
Summary: WITH MORE THAN FIVE HOURS OF BONUS FEATURES! Growing up in Texas, Bill Hicks first started performing comedy at the age of 15. He soon became a regular in Houston's comedy circuit, before moving to LA and embarking on a touring schedule, playing up to 300 shows a yea, all in a country where he was largely unknown. In 1990, Hicks performed in the United Kingdom for the first time, and became an instant star, finding fame and notoriety which had escaped him in the US and it was just as Hicks seemed on the verge of a commercial breakthrough in America, that he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died on February 24, 1994 at just 32. Using never-before-seen animation techniques we hear Bill's story, for the first time, through the people who knew him best, his family and friends, showing a timeless legacy left that's as fresh and relevant today as it was when he wrote it. Special Features include 30 minutes of UNSEEN footage and rare clips from Bill's career *** 3 hours of extend interviews *** Bill's personal audio journals *** Trailers and audience reactions *** 6 deleted animation scenes *** Featurettes including: Bill's family visit Abbey Road and Dominion, Q&A panel, Comedy School and Dwight in London, The Ranch and Making of Arizona Bay.
 

Amy Schumer: Mostly Sex Stuff

Starring: Amy Schumer
Genre: Comedy
My Rating:
Rated: Unrated
Rating: 7.3 (112 votes)
Release: Jan 2013
Summary: A ratings hit! Amy Schumer debuts her one-hour special in front of a live audience at the Historic Fillmore Theatre in San Francisco. Nothing is off limits as Schumer airs every hilarious, messed up detail of her dating and sex life, from encounters with unexpected body parts to hate-filled personal grooming appointments. In her matter-of-fact raunchy style, at odds with her self-described "Cabbage Patch Kid" appearance, Schumer tells stories of a boyfriend who makes dirty requests over dinner, the way she outsmarts her birth control, and a shocking ending to a seemingly innocent cab ride.
 

Anchorman - The Legend of Ron Burgundy

Director: Adam McKay
Starring: Christina Applegate, Fred Armisen, Steve Carell, Darcy Donavan, Will Ferrell
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Studio: Dreamworks Video
My Rating:
Rated: PG-13
Rating: 3.5 (434 votes)
Release: Dec 2004
Summary: Ron Burgundy, a macho, narcissistic news anchor from the 1970s, along with his news posse -roving reporter Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd, "Clueless"), sports guy Champ Kind (David Koechner), and dim-bulb weatherman Brick Tamland (Steve Carell, "Bruce Almighty") - rules the roost in San Diego, fawned upon by groupies and supported by a weary producer (Fred Willard, "Best In Show") who tolerates Burgundy's ego because of good ratings. But when Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate, "View from the Top") arrives with ambitions to become an anchor herself, she threatens the male-dominated newsroom.
 

Angel: Seasons 1-5

Director: John Rich
Starring: David Boreanaz
Genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy
Studio: 20th Century Fox
My Rating:
Rated: Unrated
Summary: Angel - Season One
He's hunky, he's brooding, he's a do-gooder, and he was Buffy's first boyfriend. Angel, the tortured vampire destined to walk the earth with a soul, got his own series after three seasons on ""Buffy the Vampire Slayer""and did what any new star might do: he moved to L.A. (the City of Angels--get it?) and set up shop. Angel (co-created by "Buffy" mastermind Joss Whedon) finds the titular vampire (David Boreanaz) as a kind of supernatural private investigator, fighting evil one case at a time and, like his ex-girlfriend, keeping the world from getting destroyed by vengeful demons and such. This first season features guest appearances by various "Buffy" characters, including werewolf boy Oz (Seth Green), rogue slayer Faith (Eliza Dushku), deliciously evil vamp Darla (Julie Benz), and Buffy herself (Sarah Michelle Gellar), all of whom helped get the show off and running in style.
Angel - Season Two
The second season of "Angel", saw the cult vampire show finally stand on its own from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", assembling all the members of the show's core cast, transferring the action to a fashionably run-down L.A. hotel, and bringing in a few Buffy characters from Angel's history to further establish the moody vampire's own mythology. Moving their Angel Investigations to posher digs, Angel (David Boreanaz), Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), and Wesley (Alexis Denisof) were soon joined by street fighter (J. August Richards)–-and by street fighter, of course we mean "demon" street fighter. But just as this group was solidifying, up popped Angel's old love, Darla (the fantastic Julie Benz), freshly arrived in L.A. from a hell dimension… just in time to be turned into a vampire again by her old cohort, Drusilla (Juliet Landau), and lure Angel into abandoning his newly formed team.
Angel - Season Three
In the third season of "Angel", the titular vampire with a soul was forced to stand alone thanks to the (temporary) death of his beloved Buffy and her show's move to a new network, with no crossover between the two allowed. He returns from seeking peace in a demon-haunted monastery to find the L.A. Angel Investigations team fighting supernatural crime in his absence. Fred is still haunted by the nightmare dimension from which they rescued her; Cordelia's visions get ever more painful and debilitating. The schemes of the evil law firm Wolfram and Hart become every more imaginative and dragon lady Lilah Morgan becomes even more of an enemy when lusting after Angel. Unbelievably, Darla, Angel's vampire sire and lover, turns up, pregnant with his child and is tortured by inexplicable motherly feelings as well as a raging thirst for human blood.
Angel - Season Four
As the fourth season of "Angel", starts, everything is still as we left it: Angel has been sunk to the bottom of the sea in an iron box by his inexplicable and vindictive son Connor and Cordelia has been summoned to higher realms to await orders. Gunn and Fred are left in the Hyperion Hotel, unsure about what has happened to their friends, and Lilah is working hard to seduce Wesley to the dark side. In the first few episodes, some of this is resolved but it's almost immediately replaced by far worse crises: prophesies of doom accumulate more rapidly even than usual in this wonderfully gloomy show and a horned rock-like beast rains fire on Los Angeles. This last year is "Angel"’s most tightly dramatic season yet--with a story arc of surprising intensity punctuated by the show's usual wit and sexiness.
Angel - Season Five
Lives were upended--and some co-opted--in the fifth and final season of "Angel", as the denizens of Angel Investigations found themselves taking on one of their scariest endeavors ever: corporate life. After making a literal deal with the devil (or something distinctly devil-like), Angel (David Boreanaz) moved his team from their crumbling hotel to the high-rise digs of law-firm-from-hell Wolfram & Hart, his reasoning being they could better fight the forces of evil from the inside, and with more resources to boot. Clever maneuvering or easy rationalization? Not a few members of Angel's team accused him of selling out (as did a number of viewers), but as with most of the show's previous four seasons, "Angel" somehow took a dubious premise and mined it for gold. And with one core cast member gone (Charisma Carpenter, whose Cordelia was immersed in a deep coma), it seemed as if the show, from within and without, would suddenly fall apart--that is, until Angel's longtime nemesis Spike (James Marsters) showed up, fresh from his sacrificial roasting at the series finale of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". Let the vampire games begin!
 

Animal House, National Lampoon's

Director: John Landis
Starring: John Belushi, Tim Matheson, John Vernon, Verna Bloom, Tom Hulce
Genre: Comedy
Studio: Universal Studios
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 7.5 (64,763 votes)
Release: Jul 1978
Summary: This is one of those movies that works for all the wrong reasons--disgusting, lowbrow, base humor that we are all far too sophisticated to find amusing. So, just don't tell anyone you still think it's a riot to watch John Belushi as the brutish Bluto slurp Jell-O or terrorize his less-aggressive fellow students. This crude parody of college life in the '60s spawned many imitations, but none could match the fresh-faced talent or bad taste of this huge box office success. (Remember all those toga parties in the '80s?) The first of the National Lampoon movies, this was originally released as "National Lampoon's Animal House". Keep an eye out for a very young Kevin Bacon in his first credited screen appearance. "--Rochelle O'Gorman"
 

Another Earth

Director: Mike Cahill
Starring: William Mapother, Brit Marling, Matthew-Lee Erlbach, DJ Flava, Meggan Lennon
Genre: Science Fiction
Studio: Artists Public Domain
My Rating:
Rated: PG-13
Rating: 7.0 (37,590 votes)
Release: Oct 2011
Summary: On the night of the discovery of a duplicate planet in the solar system, an ambitious young student and an accomplished composer cross paths in a tragic accident.
 

Another Year

Director: Mike Leigh
Starring: Jim Broadbent, Lesley Manville, Ruth Sheen, Imelda Staunton
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
My Rating:
Rated: PG-13
Rating: 7.3 (16,461 votes)
Release: Jul 2011
Summary: A married couple who have managed to remain blissfully happy into their autumn years, are surrounded over the course of the four seasons of one average year by friends, colleagues, and family who all seem to suffer some degree of unhappiness.
 

Antichrist

Director: Lars von Trier
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Storm Acheche Sahlstrøm
Genre: Drama, Fantasy
Studio: Criterion Collection
My Rating:
Rated: NC-17
Rating: 5.1 (10 votes)
Release: Nov 2010
Summary: Lars von Trier's notorious "Antichrist" is a fascinating and extremely gruesome experiment that combines B-horror tropes with art film concepts and cinematography to question differences between high horror and low horror, if there are such categories. Like the best of Argento, namely "Suspiria", "Antichrist" follows a strictly formulaic, minimalist, almost operatic script structure in which the story of a couple, played by Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg, grieve their dead son. The highly organized story, like a poem, has ample space for metaphors to form, dwell, and transform into overgrown mysteries, such as the decadent forest, Eden, where the couple retreat to their cabin to face demons. When the camera zooms in on a flower vase's murky water on the nightstand beside a bereft Gainsbourg, one senses the ensuing downward spiral. While the film's plot, marked by chapters named after stages of grief, like "Pain" and "Despair," is rooted in absolute realism, the film's glorious moments are in its fantasy. There is a talking fox, subtle hints at ghostly occurrences, and many scenes that express the uncanny. Moreover, Gainsbourg's character, obsessed with witchcraft as it relates to historical gynocide and misogyny, adds much to the film's depressing sensibility that wallows unapologetically in decrepitude and faulty, negative reasoning. Dafoe, who plays the psychologist treating his hallucination-plagued wife, does a remarkable job depicting a person struggling through loss with logic. "Antichrist" works because Dafoe and Gainsbourg create archetypal characters, functioning symbolically as Logic and Psychosis in a Freudian maze with no exit. That said, the violent conclusions in the film's third chapter, "Despair (Gynocide)," are grim, graphic, and very difficult to watch. "Antichrist", like its sister film in violence portrayed artfully, "Irreversible", has all the more shock value because of the archetypal symbolism it successfully establishes. --"Trinie Dalton"
 

Antiviral

Director: Brandon Cronenberg
Starring: Caleb Landry Jones, Sarah Gadon, Malcolm McDowell, Joe Pingue, Sheila McCarthy, Douglas Smith, Wendy Crewson, Nicholas Campbell, James Cade, Dawn Greenhalgh, Lara Jean Chorostecki, Salvatore Antonio, Matt Watts, Elitsa Bako, Reid Morgan, Nenna Abuwa, Milton Barnes, Katie Bergin, Lisa Berry, Ian O'Brien, Mark Caven, Adam Bogen, Tedd Dillon, Jackie English, Josh Holliday, Kim Ly, George Tchortov, Dan Warry-Smith, Vincent Thomas, Donna Goodhand, Raul Tome, Lady Vezina
Genre: Thriller, Sci-Fi, Mystery
Studio: Alliance Films
My Rating:
Rated: Unrated
Rating: 5.5 (3,347 votes)
Release: Sep 2012
Summary: Syd March is an employee at a clinic that sells injections of live viruses harvested from sick celebrities to obsessed fans. Biological communion - for a price. Syd also supplies illegal samples of these viruses to piracy groups, smuggling them from the clinic in his own body. When he becomes infected with the disease that kills super sensation Hannah Geist, Syd becomes a target for collectors and rabid fans. He must unravel the mystery surrounding her death before he suffers the same fate.
 

Antz

Director: Tim Johnson, Eric Darnell
Starring: Woody Allen, Dan Aykroyd, Anne Bancroft, Danny Glover, Gene Hackman, Jane Curtin, Jennifer Lopez, John Mahoney, Paul Mazursky, Grant Shaud, Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone, Christopher Walken
Genre: Animation, Fantasy, Family
Studio: Dreamworks Animated
My Rating:
Rated: G
Rating: 6
Release: Oct 1998
Summary: In an anthill with millions of inhabitants, Z 4195 is a worker ant. Feeling insignificant in a conformity system, he accidentally meets beautiful Princess Bala, who has a similar problem on the other end of the social scale. In order to meet her again, Z switches sides with his soldier friend Weaver - only to become a hero in the course of events. By this he unwillingly crosses the sinister plans of ambitious General Mandible (Bala's fiancé, by the way), who wants to divide the ant society into a superior, strong race (soldiers) and an inferior, to-be-eliminated race (the workers). But Z and Bala, both unaware of the dangerous situation, try to leave the oppressive system by heading for Insectopia, a place where food paves the streets.
 

Anvil: The Story of Anvil

Director: Sacha Gervasi
Starring: Robb Reiner, Steve 'Lips' Kudlow, Tiziana Arrigoni, Kevin Goocher, Glenn Gyorffy
Genre: Documentary, Biography, Music
Studio: VH1 Films
My Rating:
Rated: Unrated
Rating: 8.1 (341,832 votes)
Release: Oct 2009
Summary: Is Anvil the real Spinal Tap? That's a label that could be applied to any number of hapless hard rock bands, but there's enough evidence in "Anvil: The Story of Anvil" to suggest that these guys may have, uh, tapped into the motherlode. The parallels are many, including getting lost on the way to a gig, playing before 174 people in a 10,000 capacity venue (in Transylvania, yet), inept management, ridiculous songs (even Nigel Tufnel and David St. Hubbins couldn't match "Thumb Hang," an Anvil tune about the Spanish Inquisition)… heck, they even visit (the real) Stonehenge. But dig deeper and you'll find some real heart in this 2007 documentary. Two hearts, actually--the ones belonging to singer-guitarist Steve "Lips" Kudlow and drummer Robb Reiner (remove one "b" and you've got the director of "This Is Spinal Tap"). These two were there when the Canadian metal band formed in the early '80s and went on to share festival stages with the likes of Bon Jovi and Whitesnake. Now, a quarter century later (a new bassist and guitarist joined in the '90s), Reiner and Kudlow are in their fifties, living in Toronto with wives, kids, and menial jobs. But they still haven't given up their undying belief that with a new album (their thirteenth) and couple of breaks, they "will" be rock stars.
It doesn't happen on a mostly disastrous European tour organized by a well-meaning but inexperienced fan. It doesn't happen when they reunite with British producer Chris Tsangarides (Black Sabbath, Thin Lizzy) but find little interest in the new recording. But Kudlow, despite some bleak moments, is remarkably resilient (of the tour, he says, "Things went drastically wrong. But at least there was a tour for them to go wrong on"). And while it's a sad truth that Anvil just isn't that good--they're nowhere near the level of some of the bands they inspired, like Anthrax and Metallica--only the hardest of heart will resist rooting for them. Bonus material includes deleted scenes and commentary by director (and former roadie) Sacha Gervasi. "--Sam Graham"
 

Any Day Now

Director: Travis Fine
Starring: Alan Cumming, Garret Dillahunt, Isaac Leyva, Frances Fisher, Gregg Henry
Genre: Drama
Studio: PFM Pictures
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 6.6 (1,153 votes)
Release: Dec 2012
Summary: In the late 1970s, when a mentally handicapped teenager is abandoned, a gay couple takes him in and becomes the family he's never had. But once the unconventional living arrangement is discovered by authorities, the men must fight a biased legal system to adopt the child they have come to love as their own.
 

Apocalypse Now: Redux

Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper, Laurence Fishbourne
Genre: Drama, War
Studio: Lions Gate
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 6.1 (115,292 votes)
Release: May 2010
Summary: "Apocalypse Now / Apocalypse Now: Redux"
In the tradition of such obsessively driven directors as Erich von Stroheim and Werner Herzog, Francis Ford Coppola approached the production of "Apocalypse Now" as if it were his own epic mission into the heart of darkness. On location in the storm-ravaged Philippines, he quite literally went mad as the project threatened to devour him in a vortex of creative despair, but from this insanity came one of the greatest films ever made. It began as a John Milius screenplay, transposing Joseph Conrad's classic story "Heart of Darkness" into the horrors of the Vietnam War, following a battle-weary Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) on a secret upriver mission to find and execute the renegade Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), who has reverted to a state of murderous and mystical insanity. The journey is fraught with danger involving wartime action on epic and intimate scales. One measure of the film's awesome visceral impact is the number of sequences, images, and lines of dialogue that have literally burned themselves into our cinematic consciousness, from the Wagnerian strike of helicopter gunships on a Vietnamese village to the brutal murder of stowaways on a peasant sampan and the unflinching fearlessness of the surfing warrior Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore (Robert Duvall), who speaks lovingly of "the smell of napalm in the morning." Like Herzog's Aguirre: The Wrath of God, this film is the product of genius cast into a pit of hell and emerging, phoenix-like, in triumph. Coppola's obsession (effectively detailed in the riveting documentary "Hearts of Darkness", directed by Coppola's wife, Eleanor) informs every scene and every frame, and the result is a film for the ages. --"Jeff Shannon"
 

Apocalypto

Director: Mel Gibson
Starring: Gerardo Taracena, Raoul Trujillo, Dalia Hernández, Rudy Youngblood, Jonathan Brewer
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama
Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Touchstone
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 7.8 (165,606 votes)
Release: May 2007
Summary: Forget any off-screen impressions you may have of Mel Gibson, and experience "Apocalypto" as the mad, bloody runaway train that it is. The story is set in the pre-Columbian Maya population: one village is brutally overrun, its residents either slaughtered or abducted, by a ruling tribe that needs slaves and human sacrifices. We focus on the capable warrior Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood), although Gibson skillfully sketches a whole population of characters--many of whom don't survive the early reels. Most of the film is set in the dense jungle, but the middle section, in a grand Mayan city, is a dazzling triumph of design, costuming, and sheer decadent terror. The movie itself is a triumph of brutality, as Gibson lets loose his well-established fascination with bodily mortification in a litany of assaults including impalement, evisceration, snakebite, and bee stings. It's a dark, disgusted vision, but Gibson doesn't forget to apply some very canny moviemaking instincts to the violence--including the creation of a tremendous pair of villains (strikingly played by Raoul Trujillo and Rodolfo Palacias). The film is in a Maya dialect, subtitled in English, and shot on digital video (which occasionally betrays itself in some blurry quick pans). Amidst all the mayhem, nothing in the film is more devastating than a final wordless exchange of looks between captured villager Blunted (Jonathan Brewer) and his wife's mother (Maria Isabel Diaz), a superb change in tone from their early relationship. Yes, this is an obsessive, crazed movie, but Gibson knows what he's doing. "--Robert Horton"
Beyond "Apocalypto"
More films directed by Mel Gibson
"Apocalypto" soundtrack by James Horner Stills from "Mel Gibson's Apocalypto" (click for larger image)
 

Argo

Director: Ben Affleck
Starring: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, John Goodman
Genre: Drama, History, Thriller
Studio: Warner Bros.
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 7.9 (202,001 votes)
Release: Feb 2013
Summary: In 1979, the American embassy in Iran was invaded by Iranian revolutionaries and several Americans were taken hostage. However, six managed to escape to the official residence of the Canadian Ambassador and the CIA was eventually ordered to get them out of the country. With few options, exfiltration expert Tony Mendez devised a daring plan: to create a phony Canadian film project looking to shoot in Iran and smuggle the Americans out as its production crew. With the help of some trusted Hollywood contacts, Mendez created the ruse and proceed to Iran as its associate producer. However, time was running out with the Iranian security forces closing in on the truth while both his charges and the White House had grave doubts about the operation themselves.
 

The Aristocats

Director: Wolfgang Reitherman
Starring: Phil Harris, Eva Gabor, Sterling Holloway, Scatman Crothers, Paul Winchell, Lord Tim Hudson, Vito Scotti, Thurl Ravenscroft, Dean Clark, Liz English, Gary Dubin, Nancy Kulp, Pat Buttram, George Lindsey, Monica Evans
Genre: Animation, Comedy, Musical, Family
Studio: Disney Studios
My Rating:
Rated: G
Rating: 8
Release: Feb 2008
Summary: When Madame Adelaide Bonfamille leaves her fortune to Duchess and her children -- Bonfamille's prize family of domesticated house cats -- the butler plots to steal the money and kidnaps the heirs, leaving them out on a country road. All seems lost until the wily Thomas O'Malley Cat and his jazz-playing alley cats come to the Aristocats's rescue.
 

The Armstrong Lie

Director: Alex Gibney
Starring: Lance Armstrong
Genre: Documentary
My Rating:
Rated: R
Release: Oct 2013
Summary: In 2009, Alex Gibney was hired to make a film about Lance Armstrong’s comeback to cycling. The project was shelved when the doping scandal erupted, and re-opened after Armstrong’s confession. The Armstrong Lie picks up in 2013 and presents a riveting, insider's view of the unraveling of one of the most extraordinary stories in the history of sports. As Lance Armstrong says himself, “I didn’t live a lot of lies, but I lived one big one.”
 

Aroused

Director: Deborah Anderson
Starring: Lisa Ann, Belladonna, Lexi Belle, Allie Haze, Ash Hollywood, Jesse Jane, Katsuni, Kayden Kross, Francesca Le, Brooklyn Lee, Asphyxia Noir, April O'Neil, Teagan Presley, Misty Stone, Tanya Tate, Alexis Texas
Genre: Documentary
My Rating:
Rated: Unrated
Release: Feb 2013
Summary: Get up close and personal with 16 of the most successful women in the adult film industry as they shed their clothes for an intimate photo shoot with director Deborah Anderson. As questions are asked, personal stories about their lives are revealed, from why they chose the business of sex to how they got into it in the first place. These porn stars have always been discreet about their private lives in the past, yet Anderson has a way of opening up a dialog allowing them to share more than just their naked skin on screen. Their true inner vulnerability is touching, yet the characters they have created are confident and intoxicating. Once you hear their stories, you'll never look at them in the same way again.
 

Arrested Development - The Complete Series

Director: Mitchell Hurwitz
Starring: Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, Michael Cera, Portia de Rossi
Genre: Television, Comedy
Studio: Imagine Entertainment
My Rating:
Rated: Unrated
Rating: 9.2 (124,340 votes)
Release: Nov 2006
Summary: A mockumentary-style exploration of the beleaguered Bluth family, it's one of those idiosyncratic shows that doesn't rely on a laugh track or a studio audience; it's shot more like a TV drama, albeit with an omniscient narrator (executive producer Ron Howard) overseeing the proceedings. Holding the Bluths together just barely is son Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman), the only normal guy in a family that's chock full of nuts. Hardworking and sensible, Michael's certain he's going to be given control of his family's Enron-style corporation upon the retirement of his father (Jeffrey Tambor). The fact that he's passed over instead for his mother (Jessica Walter) is only a blip when compared to his father's immediate arrest for dubious accounting practices, and the resulting freeze on the family's previously limitless wealth. Bereft of money, and even less family love, the Bluths have to band together in their moment of need--not easy when everyone's looking out for number 1. In addition to his scabrous parents, Michael has to contend with his lothario older brother (Will Arnett), his basically useless younger brother (Tony Hale), his greedy twin sister (Portia DeRossi), and her sexually ambiguous husband (David Cross). Michael's only comrade in sanity is his son George Michael (Michael Cera), but then again, the teenage boy harbors a secret crush on his cousin (Alia Shawkat). A peerless ensemble led by the brilliant Bateman (who ever knew he could be this good?), all the actors are pitch-perfect in their roles, delivering the dryly funny, sometimes absurdist dialogue with the speed and flair of classic farce. The unusual tone of "Arrested Development" takes a bit of getting used to--it's far different from anything you'll see on TV, even HBO--but once you buy in to the Bluths' innumerable dysfunctions, you'll be laughing your head off for hours.--"Mark Englehart"
 

The Artist

Director: Michel Hazanavicius
Starring: Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John Goodman, James Cromwell, Penelope Ann Miller
Genre: Romance, Comedy, Drama
Studio: La Petite Reine
My Rating:
Rated: PG-13
Rating: 8.4 (32,607 votes)
Release: Jan 2012
Summary: Outside a movie premiere, enthusiastic fan Peppy Miller literally bumps into the swashbuckling hero of the silent film, George Valentin. The star reacts graciously and Peppy plants a kiss on his cheek as they are surrounded by photographers. The headlines demand: "Who's That Girl?" and Peppy is inspired to audition for a dancing bit-part at the studio. However as Peppy slowly rises through the industry, the introduction of talking-pictures turns Valentin's world upside-down.
 

Ass Backwards

Director: Chris Nelson
Starring: June Diane Raphael, Casey Wilson, Vincent D'Onofrio, Alicia Silverstone, Jon Cryer, Brian Geraghty
Genre: Adventure, Comedy
Studio: Prominent Pictures
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 4.4 (158 votes)
Release: Nov 2013
Summary: "Ass Backwards" is an irreverent female buddy comedy about two childhood best friends who are pushing the age of 30 and not quite where they thought they'd be in life. When they run into their former beauty pageant nemesis, they decide to go on a road trip back home to recapture the pageant crown which eluded them as children. On the road, they face some hard truths about themselves and each other as they encounter spring breakers, strip clubs, a women's militant group and their favorite reality star. This heightened comedic awakening leads us into an unforgettable third act finale that is the girls' homecoming and final reckoning with their past, present and future.
 

Assault on Precinct 13

Director: Jean-François Richet
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Laurence Fishburne, Gabriel Byrne, Maria Bello, Drea de Matteo, John Leguizamo, Brian Dennehy, Ja Rule
Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller
Studio: Entertainment in Video
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 6
Release: Jan 2005
Summary: On New Year's Eve, inside a police station that's about to be closed for good, officer Jake Roenick must cobble together a force made up cops and criminals to save themselves from a mob looking to kill mobster Marion Bishop.
 

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)

Director: John Carpenter
Starring: Austin Stoker, John Carpenter, Darwin Joston, Laurie Zimmer, Martin West, Tony Burton, Charles Cyphers, Nancy Kyes, Peter Bruni, John J. Fox, Kim Richards, Marc Ross, Alan Koss, Henry Brandon, Frank Doubleday, Gilbert De la Pena, Peter Frankland, Al Nakauchi, Gilman Rankin, Cliff Battuello, Horace Johnson, Valentine Villareal, Kenny Miyamoto, Jerry Viramontes, Len Whitaker, Kris Young, Randy Moore, Warren Bradley III, Joe Woo Jr., William S. Taylor, Brent Keast, Maynard Smith, James Jeter, James Johnson
Genre: Action, Adventure, Suspense, Thriller
Studio: CKK Corporation, The
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 7.4 (23,092 votes)
Release: Nov 1976
Summary: Police ambush and kill several gang members in Los Angeles. Gang members make a pact of blood to strike back at police, and conduct a siege on the police station which is almost abandoned and due to be closed. Staff of the closing precinct and the criminals being held there while in transit must work together to fight off the attacking gang members.
 

Attack the Block

Director: Joe Cornish
Starring: Nick Frost, Jodie Whittaker, Luke Treadaway, Joey Ansah, John Boyega
Genre: Science Fiction
Studio: Big Talk Productions
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 6.6 (55,329 votes)
Release: May 2011
Summary: When aliens attack a South London neighborhood, a teen gang pulls together to protect their turf by any means necessary. But extraterrestrials prove far more formidable than anyone they ever jumped on the streets.
 

Audition

Director: Takashi Miike
Starring: Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina, Tetsu Sawaki, Jun Kunimura, Renji Ishibashi
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Studio: Lions Gate
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 7.3 (38,069 votes)
Release: Mar 2000
Summary: A lonely Japanese widower whose son is planning to move out of the house soon expresses his sadness to a friend and fellow film producer, who becomes inspired to hold an audition for a non-existent film so that the widower can select a new potential bride from the resulting audition pool. The widower ultimately becomes enamored with and fascinated by one particular young woman...but first impressions can often be horribly wrong...
 

August: Osage County (screener)

Director: John Wells
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliette Lewis, Ewan McGregor, Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Abigail Breslin, Dermot Mulroney, Chris Cooper, Sam Shepard, Julianne Nicholson, Margo Martindale, Misty Upham
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Studio: Jean Doumanian Productions
My Rating:
Rated: R
Release: Jan 2014
Summary: A look at the lives of the strong-willed women of the Weston family, whose paths have diverged until a family crisis brings them back to the Oklahoma house they grew up in, and to the dysfunctional woman who raised them.
 

Austin Powers in Goldmember

Director: Jay Roach
Starring: Mike Myers, Beyoncé Knowles, Seth Green, Michael York, Robert Wagner
Genre: Comedy, Action, Adventure
Studio: New Line Home Video
My Rating:
Rated: PG-13
Rating: 6.7 (15 votes)
Release: Jul 2002
Summary: Despite symptoms of sequelitis, "Austin Powers in Goldmember" is must-see lunacy for devoted fans of the shagadelic franchise. Unfortunately, the law of diminishing returns is in full effect: for every big-name cameo and raunchy double-entendre, there's an equal share of redundant shtick, juvenile scatology, and pop-cultural spoofery. All is forgiven when the hilarity level is consistently high, and Mike Myers--returning here as randy Brit spy Austin, his nemesis Dr. Evil, the bloated Scottish henchman Fat Bastard, and new Dutch disco-villain Goldmember--thrives by favoring comedic chaos over coherent plotting. Once they've tossed Austin into the disco fever of 1975 (where he's sent to rescue his father, gamely played by Michael Caine), Myers and director Jay Roach seem vaguely adrift with old and new characters, including Verne Troyer's Mini-Me and pop star Beyoncé Knowles as Pam Grier-ish blaxpo-babe Foxxy Cleopatra. A bit tired, perhaps, but Powers hasn't lost his mojo. "--Jeff Shannon"
 

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery

Director: Jay Roach
Starring: Mike Myers, Elizabeth Hurley, Michael York, Mimi Rogers, Robert Wagner
Genre: Comedy, Action, Adventure
Studio: New Line Home Video
My Rating:
Rated: PG-13
Release: May 1997
Summary: If you don't think "Austin Powers" is one of the funniest movies of the 1990s, maybe you should be packed into a cryogenic time chamber and sent back to the decade whence you came. Perhaps it was the 1960s--the shagadelic decade when London hipster Austin Powers scored with gorgeous chicks as a fashion photographer by day, crime-fighting international man of mystery by night. Yeah, baby, yeah! But when Powers's arch nemesis, Dr. Evil, puts himself into a deep-freeze and travels via time machine to the late 1990s, Powers must follow him and foil Evil's nefarious scheme of global domination. Mike Myers plays dual roles as Powers and Dr. Evil, with Elizabeth Hurley as his present-day sidekick and karate-kicking paramour. A hilarious spoof of '60s spy movies, this colorful comedy actually gets funnier with successive viewings, making it a perfect home video for gloomy days and randy nights. Oh, be"have"! "--Jeff Shannon"
 

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me

Director: Jay Roach
Starring: Mike Myers, Heather Graham, Michael York, Robert Wagner, Rob Lowe
Genre: Comedy, Action, Adventure
Studio: New Line Home Video
My Rating:
Rated: PG-13
Release: Nov 1999
Summary: "I put the grrr in swinger, baby!" a deliciously randy Austin Powers coos near the beginning of "The Spy Who Shagged Me", and if the imagination of Austin creator Mike Myers seems to have sagged a bit, his energy surely hasn't. This friendly, go-for-broke sequel to 1997's "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery" finds our man Austin heading back to the '60s to keep perennial nemesis Dr. Evil (Myers again) from blowing up the world--and, more importantly, to get back his mojo, that man-juice that turns Austin into irresistible catnip for women, especially American spygirl Felicity Shagwell (a pretty but vacant Heather Graham). The plot may be irreverent and illogical, the jokes may be bad (with characters named Ivana Humpalot and Robin Swallows, née Spitz), and the scenes may run on too long, but it's all delivered sunnily and with tongue firmly in cheek.
Myers's true triumph, though, is his turn as the neurotic Dr. Evil, who tends to spout the right cultural reference at exactly the wrong time (referring to his moon base as a "Death Star" with Moon Units Alpha and Zappa--in 1969). Myers teams Dr. Evil with a diminutive clone, Mini-Me (Verne J. Troyer), who soon replaces slacker son Scott Evil (Seth Green) as the apple of the doctor's eye; Myers and Troyer work magic in what could plausibly be one of the year's most affecting (and hysterically funny) love stories. Despite a stellar supporting cast--including a sly Rob Lowe as Robert Wagner's younger self and Mindy Sterling as the forbidding Frau Farbissina--it's basically Myers's show, and he pulls a hat trick by playing a third character, the obese and disgusting Scottish assassin Fat Bastard. Many viewers will reel in disgust at Mr. Bastard's repulsive antics and the scatological bent Myers indulges in, including one showstopper involving coffee and--shudder--a stool sample. Still, Myers's good humor and dead-on cultural references win the day; Austin is one spy who proves he can still shag like a minx. "--Mark Englehart"
 

Avatar

Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Studio: 20th Century Fox
My Rating:
Rated: PG-13
Rating: 8.0 (558,158 votes)
Release: Apr 2010
Summary: After 12 years of thinking about it (and waiting for movie technology to catch up with his visions), James Cameron followed up his unsinkable Titanic with Avatar, a sci-fi epic meant to trump all previous sci-fi epics. Set in the future on a distant planet, Avatar spins a simple little parable about greedy colonizers (that would be mankind) messing up the lush tribal world of Pandora. A paraplegic Marine named Jake (Sam Worthington) acts through a 9-foot-tall avatar that allows him to roam the planet and pass as one of the Na'vi, the blue-skinned, large-eyed native people who would very much like to live their peaceful lives without the interference of the visitors. Although he's supposed to be gathering intel for the badass general (Stephen Lang) who'd like to lay waste to the planet and its inhabitants, Jake naturally begins to take a liking to the Na'vi, especially the feisty Neytiri (Zoë Saldana, whose entire performance, recorded by Cameron's complicated motion-capture system, exists as a digitally rendered Na'vi). The movie uses state-of-the-art 3D technology to plunge the viewer deep into Cameron's crazy toy box of planetary ecosystems and high-tech machinery. Maybe it's the fact that Cameron seems torn between his two loves--awesome destructive gizmos and flower-power message mongering--that makes Avatar's pursuit of its point ultimately uncertain. That, and the fact that Cameron's dialogue continues to clunk badly. If you're won over by the movie's trippy new world, the characters will be forgivable as broad, useful archetypes rather than standard-issue stereotypes, and you might be able to overlook the unsurprising central plot. (The overextended "take that, Michael Bay" final battle sequences could tax even Cameron enthusiasts, however.) It doesn't measure up to the hype (what could?) yet Avatar frequently hits a giddy delirium all its own. The film itself is our Pandora, a sensation-saturated universe only the movies could create. --Robert Horton
 

The Avengers

Director: Joss Whedon
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Studio: Marvel Enterprises
My Rating:
Rated: PG-13
Rating: 10
Release: Sep 2012
Summary: Nick Fury is director of S.H.I.E.L.D, an international peace keeping agency. The agency is a who's who of Marvel Super Heroes, with Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow. When global security is threatened by Loki and his cohorts, Nick Fury and his team will need all their powers to save the world from disaster.
 

The Awakening

Director: Nick Murphy
Starring: Rebecca Hall, Dominic West, Imelda Staunton, Lucy Cohu, John Shrapnel
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Studio: StudioCanal
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 6.4 (22,801 votes)
Release: Nov 2011
Summary: In 1921, England is overwhelmed by the loss and grief of World War I. Hoax exposer Florence Cathcart visits a boarding school to explain sightings of a child ghost. Everything she believes unravels as the 'missing' begin to show themselves.