DVDS THIS WEEK

Last updated: Tuesday, February 5, 2008

DVDS THIS WEEK

Release Date: February 5, 2008

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE

Cast: Bono, Evan Rachel Wood, Dana Fuchs, Jim Sturgess, Joe Anderson

Synopsis: At once gritty, whimsical and highly theatrical, Revolution Studios’ Across the Universe is an original movie musical springing from the imagination of renowned director Julie Taymor (Frida, Titus, and the Broadway smash hit musical “The Lion King”) and writers Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais (The Commitments). A love story set against the backdrop of the 1960s amid the turbulent years of anti-war protest, mind exploration and rock 'n roll, the film moves from the dockyards of Liverpool to the creative psychedelia of Greenwich Village, from the riot-torn streets of Detroit to the killing fields of Vietnam. The star-crossed lovers, Jude (Jim Sturgess) and Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), along with a small group of friends and musicians, are swept up into the emerging anti-war and counterculture movements, with “Dr. Robert” (Bono) and “Mr. Kite” (Eddie Izzard) as their guides. Tumultuous forces outside their control ultimately tear the young lovers apart, forcing Jude and Lucy – against all odds – to find their own way back to each other.

THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD

Cast: Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Mary-Louise Parker, Zooey Deschanel, Sam Rockwell

Synopsis: Jesse James [BRAD PITT] was one of the country’s first bona fide celebrities. There have been countless books written and tales told about America’s most famous outlaw—all of them colorful and fascinating, all focused on his larger-than-life public persona and daring exploits, and most of them bearing only incidental reference to the truth. To those he robbed and terrorized, and to the families of those he admittedly killed, he may have been just a criminal, but in the sensational newspaper articles and dime novels chronicling the James Gang throughout the 1870s, Jesse was the object of awe and admiration. He was a Robin Hood, they suggested, targeting railroad owners and banks that exploited poor farmers. He was a man with a tragic cause, a wronged and wounded Confederate soldier striking back against the Union that had ruined his life. Most importantly, to an increasingly buttoned-down and citified population leading ordinary lives, he was the last frontiersman—a symbol of freedom and the American spirit, a charismatic rebel who flouted the law and lived by his own rules…by all accounts, a legend. Foremost among his admirers was Robert Ford [CASEY AFFLECK], an idealistic and ambitious young man who had devoted his life to the hope of one day riding alongside his idol. He could never have imagined that history would ultimately mark him as the 'the dirty little coward' who shot Jesse in the back. But who was Jesse James, really—behind the folklore and the selling of newspapers? And who was Robert Ford, just nineteen and a member of Jesse’s inner circle, who was able to bring down such a formidable figure when lawmen across ten states had tried and failed? How did they come to be friends and what happened between them in the days and hours leading up to the gunshot that would end one man’s life and become the definition and sum total of another’s? No one will ever know the whole truth. Based on the novel by Ron Hansen, 'The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford' delves into the private lives of America’s most notorious outlaw and his unlikely assassin to offer a new perspective on a legend and address the question of what really may have transpired in the months before that infamous shooting. The year is 1881 and Jesse is 34 years old. As he plans his next great robbery, he continues to wage war on his enemies who are trying to collect the reward money and the glory riding on his capture. But the greatest threat to his life could come from those he would trust the most.

THE BRAVE ONE

Cast: Jodie Foster, Naveen Andrews, Terrence Dashon Howard, Mary Steenburgen, Nicky Katt

Synopsis: 'Why don't they stop me?' Erica Bain wonders. Bain, a popular N.Y radio host, watched her fiancé die and nearly lost her own life to a vicious, random attack. Now she discovers a stranger within herself, an armed wanderer in the urban night, out for vengeance and at war with her own soul. Two-time Academy Award winner Jodie Foster, as Erica, joins Oscar nominee Terrence Howard, as a determined cop hot on her trail. Erica's future is uncertain, but one thing is not: THE BRAVE ONE is a high- tension thriller that packs a visceral and emotional punch.

ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE

Cast: Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, Geoffrey Rush, Samantha Morton, Abbie Cornish

Synopsis: Academy Award® winners Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush join Academy Award® nominee Clive Owen in a gripping historical thriller full of suspense, intrigue and adventure! When Queen Elizabeth's reign is threatened by ruthless familial betrayal and Spain's invading army, she and her shrewd advisor must act to safeguard to the lives of her people. But when a dashing seafarer, Walter Raleigh, captures her heart, she is forced to make her most tragic sacrifice for the good of her country. Elizabeth: The Golden Age tells the thrilling tale of one woman's crusade to control her love, destroy her enemies and secure her position as a beloved icon of the western world.

GANGSTA RAP: THE GLOCKUMENTARY

Cast: Clifton Powell, Howie Bell, Malik Barnhardt, Slink Capone

Synopsis: The hardest group you've never heard of is back. In the mid to late eighties, Gangsta Rap ran the west coast underground with such classics as “Beat Yo Mamma With A Hammer” and 'In My House Shoes'. In the early nineties Gangsta Rap fell into obscurity after several run ins with the law, shady business management, failed comeback attempts and countless child custody cases. But now, they’re back. They’ve just inked a deal with gangster rap powerhouse Innersounds Records and are the subject of a documentary film entitled Gangsta Rap: The Glockumentary.

BLIND DATING

Cast: Chris Pine, Jane Seymour, Anjali Jay, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Stephen Tobolowsky

Synopsis: Danny (Pine) is smart, handsome, popular, and blind...and not just physically: He also can't see how wild women are for him! Even his sexy therapist (Seymour) can't keep her clothes on around Danny! After a series of painful 'blind dates' set up by his brother (Thomas), Danny falls for a young Indian woman named Leeza (Jay), and finally everything seems picture perfect. But when cultures clash and Leeza reveals that she's been promised to someone else, Danny must prove to her that there's more to love than meets the eye!

FIERCE PEOPLE

Cast: Anton Yelchin, Chris Evans, Diane Lane, Donald Sutherland, Elizabeth Perkins

Synopsis: Contrasting the mores of high society with the blunt savagery of primitive tribes, FIERCE PEOPLE takes an inside look at the upper classes, examining the darkness that lurks beneath the surface of good manners. Sporting a biting wit, and featuring charismatic performances from Diane Lane and Donald Sutherland, this unflinching drama exposes the trappings of wealth and privilege, and their overwhelming power to both seduce and corrupt.

THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB

Cast: Emily Blunt, Kevin Zegers, Maggie Grace, Maria Bello, Amy Brenneman

Synopsis: Today's central California may be far removed from Regency England, but some things never change. We're still every bit as preoccupied with the complexities of marriage, friendship, romantic entanglements, position, and social manners and mores as was Jane Austen at the turn of the 1800s. THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB reveals the lives of an ensemble of present-day friends through the witty prism of their literary heroine. Six book club members, six Austen books, six interwoven story lines over six months in the busy modern setting of Sacramento, where city and suburban sprawl meet natural beauty. While the contemporary stories never slavishly parallel the Austen plots, the six characters find echoes, predictions, warnings and wisdom about their own trajectories within Austen's beloved narratives.

FEAST OF LOVE

Cast: Greg Kinnear, Missi Pyle, Morgan Freeman, Radha Mitchell, Selma Blair

Synopsis: From venerable Academy Award® winning director Robert Benton (Kramer vs. Kramer), comes a kaleidoscopic ode to life and love in all its funny, sad, sexy, crazy, heartbreaking and life sustaining facets: Feast of Love.
In a coffee shop in a tight-knit Oregon community, local professor Harry Stevenson (Academy Award® winner Morgan Freeman) witnesses love and attraction whipping up mischief among the town's residents. From the unlucky in love, die-hard romantic coffee shop owner Bradley (Academy Award® nominee Greg Kinnear) who has a serial habit of looking for love in all the wrong places, including with his current wife Kathryn (Selma Blair); to the edgy real estate agent Diana (Radha Mitchell) who is caught up in an affair with a married man (Billy Burke) with whom she shares an ineffable connection; to the beautiful young newcomer Chloe (Alexa Davalos) who defies fate in romancing the troubled Oscar (Toby Hemingway); to Harry himself, whose adoring wife (Jane Alexander) is looking to break through his wall of grief after the wrenching loss of a beloved.
. . .they all intertwine into one remarkable story in which no one can escape being bent, broken, befuddled, delighted and ultimately redeemed by love's inescapable spell.

GREAT WORLD OF SOUND

Cast: John Baker, Kene Holliday, Pat Healy, Rebecca Mader, Tricia Paoluccio

Synopsis: “Great World of Sound” follows Martin (Pat Healy), as he applies for a job at a company training prospective “music producers”. During training he pairs up with another new employee, Clarence (Kene Holliday), a middle aged man trying to change his career path. As record producers, the two travel to towns where the company has placed newspaper ads to find undiscovered musicians. They are seeking talent for the record label- signing new artists and giving them a chance to let their music be heard… for a small fee. It’s going great at first, but soon Martin and Clarence begin to question whether the company is as virtuous as it promises to be in it’s promise to give people their dream.This film evokes the image of the traveling salesman- a talent salesman- to address the increasing trend of people looking for a shortcut to fame. The film also examines the people who promise such an easy path- commenting that a “scam artist” rarely believes they are one, and that often the scam artist is being scammed himself.

Source: CelebrityWonder.com

| Tuesday, February 5, 2008

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