August 11th, 2009

For the Boys...

Paul Rudd (Role Models, The Baxter) has a pretty good life in I Love You, Man: a good job, a wonderful fiance (Rashida Jones: The Ten, Little Black Book), and supportive family (Jane Curtin: The Shaggy Dog, The Librarian, J.K. Simmons: Thank You For Smoking, Burn After Reading, and Andy Samberg: Hot Rod, Space Chimps)... but he doesn't have any friends. After trying in vain to make connections with other guys, he finds himself bonding with Jason Segel (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, SLC Punk), who changes his outlook on a lot of his life. Labeled a "Bromantic Comedy," I Love You Man is available on DVD and Blu-Ray.

Matthew Perry's (Birds of America, Fools Rush In) life has come to a standstill, separated from his wife (Leslie Mann: Drillbit Taylor, Last Man Standing) and children, and staying at his best friend's (Thomas Lennon: Hancock, Conversations with Other Women) house... until he magically becomes 17 Again. Transformed into his 17 year-old self (Zac Efron: High School Musical, The Derby Stallion), he re-enrolls in high school and sets out to live his life again, but this time, he'll do everything right.

Drive Ins and 50's Sci Fi

Written by our own Steven Fisher (over at Ace Hardware), Alien Trespass is an homage to the science fiction B movies from the 1950s. When a monster crash lands on Earth in 1957, an interstellar lawman inhabits the body of Ted Lewis (Eric McCormack: Holy Man, The Andromeda Strain) to stop the creature from destroying humanity. As the tentacled and sometimes invisible creature works its way through the town, it's tracked by the local police (Robert Patrick: The Marine, Walk the Line and Dan Lauria: The Spirit, Stakeout) who only know that the townsfolk are being turned into puddles of ooze.

French

Born in '68 is a an acclaimed drama about a young couple in 1968 who drastically change their lives to start a commune and pursue a rebellious, free-love. Twenty years later, their children witness the fall of communism, and look back at their parents' generation, and the kind of world that drove their utopian dream apart.

Nominated for an Oscar this year, The Class focuses on a teacher in a tough, inner city Paris middle school. Challenging his eclectic class, he engages them both academically and socially, working slowly to gain their respect.

Paris 36 follows the fortunes of a theater stage manager as his building changes hands from mobsters to unions and everyone inbetween.

Smaller Titles

When an unhappy mattress salesman (Paul Dano: There Will Be Blood, Little Miss Sunshine), overlooked by his parents (Ed Asner: Elf, JFK and Jane Alexander: Feast of Love, Cider House Rules), gets involved with a quirky, privileged girl (Zooey Deschanel: The Go-Getter, The Happening) in Gigantic, he begins to neglect his dream of adopting a baby from China... but first he has to win the approval of her bear-like father (John Goodman: Speed Racer, Confessions of a Shopaholic)

A Canadian director (Donal Logue: Max Payne, Zodiac) gets sent to Scotland to shoot a fishing show in Almost Heaven, but his easy job is immediately made difficult by the show's star: his combative ex-wife (Joely Collins: Hideaway, The Final Cut). The locals are standoffish to outsiders, the owner of the local pub (Tom Conti: Derailed, Saving Grace) has issues with serving him drinks, and- worst of all- there are no fish in the river... but luckily, he's able to get along with the local fishing expert (Kristy Mitchell: I'll Be There, Greyfriars Bobby).

The documentary Home is a compilation of aerial footage of the Earth, detailing the current state of the planet and the changes in climate and natural balance of the world, as narrated by Glenn Close (Evening, Air Force One).

Staring Liu Ye (Curse of the Golden Flower, Nanking Nanking) and set during the end of China's cultural revolution in the 1970s, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress follows two friends from the city as they're sent into the mountains for Maoist re-education. Though they fall in love with the remote country, they discover a suitcase of banned western books and share them with the beautiful daughter of the town's tailor, and all of their lives are changed forever.

 

New this week to Reckless Video's TV New Releases are the 5th season of the popular Project Runway and the 6th and final volume of the anime series Darker than Black.