New on DVD

We’re here to keep you informed on hot choices for renting or buying new DVD releases; unfortunately, this week blows in rentals. Released this week: Grilled, Basic Instinct 2, Weeds-Season 1 and ER: The Complete Fifth Season.

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Here’s what is getting released today on DVD:

Film:

Basic Instinct 2 – – How bad does a film have to be for Joe Eszterhas to refuse to make it?  How silly is it for a 50 year-old woman to strut around in skimpy outfits like a horny teenager?  How untitiliating is it to see a nude 50 year-old woman pretending to be a 20 year-old woman, and how sad is it to watch?  How unnecessary is this sequel?  What does Sharon Stone’s pet project really have to offer?  These questions and more can be answered if you’re willing to watch one of the most ridiculous films in recent memory. Get the rest of Alan’s opinion on Basic Instinct 2.

Grilled – Hurray for all of us, its Ray Romano and Kevin James in a comedy, a direct to video comedy, mind you. Dark comedy that isn’t really all that it’s cracked up to be. I know, you ask why, it’s got Everybody Loves Raymond and Queen of Kings in it, don’t forget, it also has Burt Reynolds and Juliette Lewis and there is a reason it was direct to video, NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO EVEN ATTEMPT THE BIG SCREEN!!! Meat salesmen go out to make the big sale and win back their jobs, run into a bit of mob trouble. That’s about it, one problem arises after another and they keep trying to bail themselves out. Done and done, it’s your risk.

 

Special Edition:

Weeds-Season 1 – In trying to keep up with HBO, Showtime comes up with the excellent Weeds. Mary-Louise Parker plays a widowed mom of two sons and she’s a suburban pot dealer to pay the bills. Both sons are a royal pain in the ass (everybody should have daughters), one is a sexually exuberant teen and the other a want to be terrorist on video and he’s only in grade school. This series has off beat comedy, dark side and light sides, drama and suburban life being poked fun at. Packaged includes 10 episodes on 2 discs and that’s that.

ER: The Complete Fifth Season – This is a rip-roaring season for many. Dr. Ross (George Clooney) exits right and leaves head nurse, Carol Hathaway (Julianna Margulies) in a suicidal fit. Dr. Benton’s (Eriq La Salle) son is deaf; Dr. Weaver (Laura Innes) loses the opportunity to be head of emergency, but no worries she gets to be super bitch later. This season is where we see the lovely red headed intern, British Dr. Elizabeth Corday (Alex Kingston), start all over again with practicing medicine in the US and Dr. Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards) is the peanut butter that keeps this TV series bread together. There are 22 episodes on 6 disks with a few Outpatient outtakes and unaired scenes. A short gag reel, nothing too special, but for you hard-core fans, the series on DVD itself should be awesome enough.

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This Week

So what’s out there this week.  Well today we’ll take a look at the films scheduled to be released this Friday which include a new film with Owen Wilson and Kate Hudson, a comedy about a baby-sized criminal, William H. Macy in a film adapted from a David Mamet play, and an eighteen year-old who takes up prostitution only to find out her step-father is her first client.  All that and more; read on.

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Here’s what’s scheduled to hit theaters this week.  Want to know more, just click on the title for film info including a full cast list.  Want a closer look, just click on the poster to watch the trailer.

You, Me and Dupree

The blissful life of newlyweds Carl (Matt Dillon) and Molly (Kate Hudson) is disrupted when their unemployed and homeless best man (Owen Wilson) moves in with them.  If the trailers are true (and we know they never lie!) hilarity will soon ensue.  A pretty thin premise to be sure from first time screenwriter Mike LeSieur.  There is hope however as the film found itself in the laps of co-directors Joe and Anthony Russo (Arrested Development).  Something of interest – the supporting cast includes Michael Douglas, Seth Rogan, and Amanda Detmer.  Check back on Friday for our review.

Little Man

From the men who brought you White Chicks…still reading?  Why?  I know it made a huge profit, but really did anyone enjoy that movie? Anyway…  Pretty lame looking story involves a thief (Marlon Wayans), who happens to be the size of a baby, hiding out pretending to be baby for an incredibly simple minded and obviously blind couple (Shawn Wayans, Kerry Washington).  Keenan Ivory Wayans directs.  Seriously, anyone remember the last good movie from the Wayans’ clan without (or to be truthful, even with) Damon?  Boy, oh boy, In Living Color was a loooong time ago.

Edmond (limited)

William H. Macy in a film based on his friend David Mamet’s play!  I am so there!  A trip to the fortune teller (Frances Bay) is the catalyst that sends Edmond (William H. Macy) on a quest to find truth and fulfillment to add meaning to his drab existence by exploring the dark underbelly of New York City.  The supporting cast includes Mamet regulars Rebecca Pidgeon and Joe Mantegna, along with Dule Hill, Debi Mazar, Denise Richards, Mena Suvari, Dylan Walsh, and Vincent Guastaferro.  I don’t think even the casting of Julia Styles in a major role could ruin this one for me (I hope!).

Mini’s First Time (limited)

Nikki Reed (American Gun, Thirteen) stars as the young and rambunctious 18 year-old Mini who on whim decides to try prostitution.  Her new adventure takes a surprise twist when her first client turns out to be her stepfather (Alec Baldwin).  Luke Wilson and Carrie-Anne Moss also star.  A surprisingly good cast given the themes of the movie, especially for a first time director in Nick Guthe.  Are audiences ready for another dose of this subject matter after having trouble swallowing Hard Candy earlier this year?  Time will tell.

The OH in Ohio (New York and Los Angeles)

Doesn’t Parker Posey ever sleep?  In this one her husband (Paul Rudd) moves out frustrated his wife can’t orgasm (your snickers here) and begins a relationship with a student (Mischa Barton).  Free and a little lost Priscilla begins a journey that leads her to find what she has been seeking in the most unlikely of all places – the arms of Danny Devito!  Okay, that sounds like it has a chance to be memorable, and maybe even good.  This one’s getting a limited release which will slowly widen over the next few weeks into more markets, but you’ll probably have to hunt for it in smaller theaters and art houses.  Heather Graham, Keith David, and Liza Minnelli also star.

The Groomsmen (New York and Los Angeles)

One week before his wedding the groom (Edward Burns – who also wrote and directed the film) and his four best friends (Donal Logue, Jay Mohr, Matthew Lillard, John Leguizamo) reunite for fun, reminiscing and celebration.  Their time together however also bring up issues like fatherhood, responsibility, and a sense of their long adolescence is coming to a close.  Brittany Murphy stars as his pregnant fiance.  Early word on the film has been mixed along with comparisons to The Brothers McMullen.  Heather Burns, John Mahoney, Jessica Capshaw and Julie McNiven also star.  It opens this week in New York & L.A.

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Dumb but fun “Pirates”

  • Title: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
  • IMDB: link

dead-mans-chest-poster-2It’s July, and the most exciting movie to have come out this summer has been The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Don’t get me wrong, I was along for the ride when it came out last month; but this is summer, and we should be bombarded with more action than the Playboy Mansion.  Where’s that movie that you can’t get yourself to leave for the restroom after drinking a gallon of Cherry Coke from the consession stand, even though you’re pretty sure it will cause some sort of internal combustion by the time the credits role?

Now it’s here, and it’s called Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. It doesn’t quite threaten audiences’ bladders like you might hope it will, but in this summer of Poseidon and X-Men: The Last Stand, it feels pretty damn good to be able to escape to the cinemas from the dead heat of summer into a decent action flick for the first time this year.

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Empty Chest

  • Title: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
  • IMDB: link

pirates-dead-mans-chest-posterPirates of the Carribean: Dead Man’s Chest is a perfect example why sequels shouldn’t be made.  There’s nothing original here as the film gives us action scene after action scene, without any real story to hold them together. 

Nor does it help that the film steals plot, characters, scenes and more from Clash of the Titans (the Kracken, the floating coffins), King Kong (the island and its multicultural tribe, the running time), The Return of the Jedi (the Quarren, the Sarlaac, the Ewok village, the ceremonial fires and the exact scene as Han Solo tries to blow the fire out), Raiders of the Lost Ark (the tribe chasing the explorers through the jungle to the safety of the plane, the giant boulder), The Matrix Reloaded (the search for an oracle, the gathering together of forces on an adventure in the next film) and others even including American Gladiators (atlasphere)!

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A Blacksmith, a Pirate, and a Lovely Lass

  • Title: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
  • IMDb: link

pirates-curse-of-the-black-pearl-poster

A movie about pirates AND it was based off a amusement park ride?  With two strikes like that against it there should be no way Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is this good.  But it is!

Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) washed up onto a ship as a boy, rescued by Governor Wetherby Swann (Jonathan Pryce) and the royal navy.  Now Will is an assistant blacksmith who is in love with the Governer’s daughter Elizabeth (Keira Knightly), who fancies him as well, but due to social customs is unable to admit his feelings.

Into our story comes the very odd Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) a pirate without a ship whose arrival begins a series of events that leads to his imprisonment, Elizabeth’s kidnapping, and the discovery of a dark curse aboard Cap’n Jack’s former ship the Black Pearl.

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