October 9, 2007

The PG Set

A pair of family friendly releases are new out this week, as Morgan Freeman (The Shawshank Redemption, Se7en) reprises his role as God in Evan Almighty, which stars Steve Carell (The Office, The 40-Year-Old Virgin) as a modern-day Moses, commanded to build an ark in preparation for a coming flood. Our newest animated feature this week is Surf's Up, where Shia LaBeouf (Holes, Disturbia) voices a penguin determined to win a surf contest, traveling from Antarctica to tropical Pen Gu island, and running into Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite, Blades of Glory) and Zooey Deschanel (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Failure to Launch) along the way. The Reef is a G-rated story of an animated fish on a voyage to his aunt's coral reef, meeting colorful characters and possibly true love along the way.

Comedy/Drama

In another dramatic turn, Adam Sandler (Punch Drunk Love, 50 First Dates) plays a damaged man haunted by the loss of his wife and child in Reign Over Me, where he forms a new bond with his old roommate, Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda, Ocean's 11). Andie MacDowell (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Michael) and Olivia Williams (Below, Rushmore) star in Tara Road, the Oprah Book Club selection adaptation where two women exchange houses for two months. The Treatment is a comedy about an emotionally paralyzed man and his wild and unconventional therapist (Ian Holm: Lord of the Rings, Strangers with Candy), who may get him well enough to court Famke Janssen (X-Men, Lord of Illusions). Wim Wenders (Buena Vista Social Club, Paris Texas) assembles an ensemble cast cast for Three Days of Rain, weaving together Chekhov stories into a patchwork film a la Crash or Magnolia, and Ben Kingsley (Sexy Beast, Suspect Zero) plays an alcoholic hit man sent to the west coast to dry out in You Kill Me.

The October Tradition

Since Halloween is just around the corner, we've got a handful of scary movies hitting the shelves. The sequel to 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later stars Robert Carlyle (Eragon, Trainspotting) as a father welcoming home his children; London is repopulated after the outbreak that overtook the country, and no one suspects that it might happen again. Another sequel, Wrong Turn 2: Dead End sends another group of beautiful people in to cannibalistic inbred back woods, although this group is escorted by a militaristic Henry Rollins (Feast, Heat). Black Sheep is a horror/comedy crossing 50's mad scientist tropes with post millennial gore, and adding a good number of killer sheep. Lucy Liu (Charlie's Angels, Lucky Number Slevin) becomes a creature of the night in Rise: Bloodhunter, as she hunts the vampires who made her.

Though we've had the BBC versions for a while, Reckless Video has just acquired the first season of the US version of Creature Comforts, a still helmed by Aardman studios (Wallace & Grommit, Chicken Run) as well as the first two seasons of the sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, here by popular demand. Series three of Agatha Christie's Marple is also new in our television section, as well as several new episodes of cult favorite Mystery Science Theater 3000, including Tormented, Horror of Spider Island, Hercules Unchained, Hercules against the Moon Men, Ring of Terror, The Indestructible Man, Prince of Space, and The Killer Shrews.

Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride is a new documentary about Hunter S. Thompson (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Where the Buffalo Roam), narrated by Nick Nolte and featuring may of Thompson's Hollywood cadre, including Johnny Depp and Sean Penn. The newest Blue Planet series, Seas of Life, is also new this week, exploring the world's oceans, and Michael Palin follows up his Around the World in 80 Days with the new Pole to Pole, a voyage along the 30 degree east line from the north pole to the south.