It’s a week full of stars as releases featuring Barbra Streisand, Bradley Cooper, James Gandolfini, Russell Crowe, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Banks, Seth Rogen, Mark Wahlberg, Catherine Zeta Jones, Ray Liotta and Twilight Sparkle!
As always, fire up that queue and prep that shopping cart and check out this weeks’ latest releases!
Silver Linings Playbook
Pat Solatano (Bradley Cooper) has lost everything – his house, his job and his wife. He finds himself living back with his mother (Jacki Weaver) and father (Robert De Niro) after spending 8 months in a state institution on a plea bargain. While rebuilding his life, Pat is determined to remain positive and reunite with his wife despite the challenging circumstances of their separation. When Pat meets Tiffany (Academy Award Winner, Jennifer Lawrence), a mysterious girl with problems of her own, things get complicated. As their relationship plays out, an unexpected bond forms between them, and silver linings appear in both of their lives. Extras include deleted scenes, featurettes, and Q & A Highlights.
The Guilt Trip
An overly neurotic inventor, Andy (Seth Rogen), invites his overbearing mother, Joyce (Barbra Streisand), along on a cross-country road trip in order to sell his latest invention and, unbeknown to her, to reunite Joyce with a former lover. As the pair embark on their journey, Andy finds himself growing increasingly agitated by his mother’s behaviour, while getting ever more closer to her at the same time. Extras include featurettes and deleted scenes.
Not Fade Away
Not Fade Away, David Chase’s deeply felt love letter to the music of the Sixties, is a film about dreams that come true — and the ones that never do. A bit of a brooding outsider by nature, Douglas (John Magaro) finds his way in when he joins the band. As the band struggles to define itself, Douglas makes his way closer to the spotlight as he begins to explore his own voice by trying on the looks and sounds of his heroes. Before very long — in a grand rock & roll tradition — tensions ensue within the band, both creative and otherwise. The question becomes – as for countless bands everywhere, both before and since – will this group “make it big” before those tensions tear them apart?
Either way, being part of the band – at first called the Twylight Zones and later TBD — dramatically transforms Douglas’ life and offers him the cooler and more bohemian identity that he so desperately desires. Among other things, Douglas’ raw talent and slightly Dylanesque onstage persona gives him the chance to finally win the attention of the beautiful girl of his dreams from high school, Grace Deitz (Bella Heathcote). This is, after all, the main reason that generations of male musicians have given for playing music in the first place. In Grace, Douglas finds his first true believer, and in his relationship with her, he begins to imagine a whole new world of possibilities — as well as the chance to experience the burgeoning new sexual revolution hands on. Extras include three part making of, deleted scenes and featurettes.
Power plays everyone. Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe and Catherine Zeta Jones star in this gripping crime thriller where everyone has a motive and no one can be trusted.
Seven years after being forced to resign as a New York police officer, private detective Billy Taggart (Wahlberg) takes on his toughest case yet: following the wife (Zeta-Jones) of the city’s hard-nosed mayor (Crowe), who’s convinced she’s cheating on him. But by the time the mayor reveals his true intentions, Billy is already in too deep. Now, with his freedom – and quite possibly his life – on the line, Billy will risk it all in a desperate bid to expose the truth, and seek redemption in a city where second chances don’t come cheap. Extras include feturettes, deleted scenes and an alternate ending.
Manborg
The armies of Hell have taken over the Earth, and all that stands in the way of the villainous Count Draculon and humanity’s total extinction is a motley crew of misfits led by the mighty Manborg: a warrior who’s half-man, half machine, but all hero.
When a young soldier is killed during the first war against Hell, he awakens in the future as Manborg, a walking weapon and mankind’s last hope for salvation. Struggling to learn the secret of his origins, Manborg unwittingly befriends as post-apocalyptic Australian punk, a knife wielding vixen, and a kung fu master, before finally squaring off against Count Draculon in a desperate and bloody battle to take back the Earth. Extras include commentaries, deleted and alternate scenes, bloopers, short film, interviews, and featurettes.
The Details
After ten years of marriage, Jeff and Nealy Lang (Tobey Maguire and Elizabeth Banks) have an idyllic suburban home… and a relationship on the skids. But, when a family of hungry raccoons ransacks their perfectly manicured backyard, Jeff becomes obsessed with eradicating the pests by any means necessary. Soon the relentless rodents aren’t merely uprooting the lawn, but also overturning the Langs’ entire bourgeois existence, as the man-versus-beast battle leads into an absurd mess of infidelity, extortion, organ donation and other assorted mayhem. Extras include alternate opening and ending.
Funny Girl
One of the most popular movie musicals ever made is now better than ever on Blu-ray, Funny Girl follows the early career of stage comedienne Fanny Brice, a role that earned Barbra Streisand the 1968 Oscar for Best Actress. Only her mother believes Fanny can make it in show business, but when she gets her first break at Keeney’s Music Hall, her hilarious debut gets her hired as a comedienne. Fanny becomes a star, falls in love and marries Nick Arnstein (Omar Sharif), a handsome gambler. The film’s many memorable songs include “Don’t Rain on My Parade” and the Streisand classic “People.” Extras include featurettes.
My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic: Princess Twilight Sparkle
Since arriving in Ponyville, Twilight has learned Princess Celestia’s most valuable lesson – the meaning of true friendship. But with every new adventure comes a new lesson and if anyone is up for more learning, it’s the studious Twilight Sparkle! Join Twilight and her best friends for five royally wild adventures through Equestria that are bound to further demonstrate what every pony already knows – that friendship is magic! Episodes Include: Games Ponies Play, Magical Mystery Cure, Mmmystery On The Friendship Express, Magic Duel and Lesson Zero.
Syndicate: Series 1
In this riveting British series, five cash-strapped supermarket employees are bracing for their store’s imminent shutdown when their lottery pool wins big. It seems like a godsend – but the syndicate soon learns that good fortune can come at a high price.
As the unlikely millionaires walk the tightrope between ruin and reward, the narrative follows each character in turn. Brothers Stuart (Matthew McNulty) and Jamie (Matthew Lewis) are haunted by a crime of desperation, while store manager Bob (Timothy Spall) faces a daunting health crisis. Reserved Leanne (Joanna Page) finds her past catching up with her, and kindhearted Denise (Lorraine Bruce) endures a troubled marriage.
The Wicked
It is a bedtime story nearly every kid in the small town of Summerset has heard. A silly story passed down from generation to generation that offers just enough chills to keep the legend alive. This year is different. Seven year old Amanda Drake (Caitlin Carmichael) is swiped from her bedroom window. Rumors swirl. The Witch has returned. Always up for a good fright, and a chance to impress the girls, 18 year old Zach (Justin Deeley) and his friends decide to sneak into the woods and find the mysterious old house where the legendary Witch supposedly lives.
Unbeknownst to Zach, his younger brother Max (Devon Werkheiser) and Max’s “girlfriend” Sammy (Diana Hopper) sneak along. They all soon discover that folklore isn’t always myth and that bedtime stories sometimes come true. The Witch has indeed returned with the intent of casting her magical spells to deceive, hunt and ultimately consume the local children to keep her young, older ones to keep her strong and pretty ones to keep her beautiful. Zach and Max, who can’t stand each other, and their teenage friends find themselves trapped in the Witch’s lair. They must bury their differences or be buried themselves. There is no escape from “The Wicked” once the spell has been cast.
Only The Young / Tchoupitoulas
Only The Young presents three teenagers living in a Southern California desert town dominated by foreclosed homes and underpasses, empty swimming pools and skateboard parks. With disarming honesty and wit, the innocent yet rebellious teens navigate friendship and first love. First time directors Tippet and Mims’ delicate and ethereal filmmaking captures the very essence of adolescence.
Tchoupitoulas is the second feature from the Ross brothers. In this lyrical portrait, three adolescent brothers take us on a lively journey through one immersive night in New Orleans, encountering a vibrant kaleidoscope of dancers, musicians, hustlers, and revelers and introducing us to the people who make the city their home.
