DVD Releases
Big movies coming to the small screen
By Marni Weisz
June 2
REVOLUTIONARY ROAD
Stars: Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio
Director: Sam Mendes (American Beauty)
Story: The suburbs of 1950s Connecticut are taking their toll
on once-idealistic Frank (DiCaprio) and April (Winslet) Wheeler. The
dreams they had when they married have fizzled, and unless they can
make good on a plan to move to Paris and live like Bohemians, all may
be lost.
DVD Extras: “Lives of Quiet Desperation: The Making of Revolutionary Road,”deleted scenes
DEFIANCE
Stars: Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber
Director: Edward Zwick (Blood Diamond)
Story: During the Holocaust, three brothers (Craig, Schreiber, Jamie Bell) in Eastern Europe organize a forest encampment to shelter Jews fleeing the Nazis. Based on the true story of Tuvia, Zus and Asael Bielski.
DVD Extras: “Return to the Forest: The Making of Defiance,” “Children of The Otriad: The Families Speak,” “Bielski Partisan Survivors”
FANBOYS
Stars: Jay Baruchel, Kristen Bell
Director: Kyle Newman (debut)
Story: The drama surrounding the release of this long-on-the-shelf comedy (made as an indie/bought by Weinstein/ Weinstein wanted to change script/internet-based revolt) may, in the end, have been a better story than the movie itself. But Star Wars nerds should find some giggles in this account of a group of friends who trek to Skywalker Ranch to steal an early copy of Phantom Menace for their dying friend.
DVD Extras: deleted scenes, “4 Fanboys & 1 Fangirl”
HE’S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU
Stars: Justin Long, Ginnifer Goodwin
Director: Ken Kwapis (License to Wed)
Story: Spun loosely from the self-help book of the same name, this ensemble comedy stars Goodwin as an unlucky-in-love singleton who starts taking romance advice from a brutally honest bar owner (Long). Other plotlines involve lovelorn characters played by Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck and Scarlett Johansson.
DVD Extras: deleted scenes
June 9
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Clint Eastwood and Bee Vang in
Gran Torino
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THE INTERNATIONAL
Stars: Clive Owen, Naomi Watts
Director: Tom Tykwer (Perfume: The Story of a Murderer)
Story: Just as the economy collapses at the hands of the
world’s banks, we get this thriller featuring a bank as the arch
villain. It’s the International Bank of Business and Credit, to be
precise, and Interpol Agent Louis Salinger (Owen) has just discovered
it’s using your money to finance war, murder and general malevolence.
DVD Extras: deleted scenes, “Shooting at the Guggenheim,” “The Autostadt”
GRAN TORINO
Stars: Clint Eastwood, Bee Vang
Director: Clint Eastwood (Changeling)
Story: Walt (Eastwood), a retired Detroit auto worker and
unabashed racist, reluctantly gets to know his Asian neighbours after a
gang tries to recruit their son (Vang) and steal Walt’s precious 1972
Gran Torino.
DVD Extras: “Manning the Wheel: American Car Culture and
Manhood,” “Gran Torino: More Than a Car,” “The Eastwood Way: His
Filmmaking Process Up Close”
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June 23
CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC
Stars: Isla Fisher, Hugh Dancy
Director: P.J. Hogan (Peter Pan)
Story: Shoes. Handbags. Cute summer dresses. If your pulse just quickened you may enjoy this light romantic laugher about shop-happy Rebecca Bloomwood (Fisher) who — against all odds — gets a job working for a financial management magazine.
DVD Extras: bloopers, deleted scenes, music video
WALTZ WITH BASHIR
Voices: Ari Folman, Ronny Dayag
Director: Ari Folman (Made in Israel)
Story: Writer/director Folman uses animation to illustrate his fragmented recollection of a tragedy he witnessed during Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon. A Lebanese Christian militia massacred victims in a Palestinian refugee camp, but Folman, who was in the Israeli army, tries to figure out why his own government didn’t step in.
INKHEART
Stars: Brendan Fraser, Helen Mirren
Director: Iain Softley (K-PAX)
Story: There are lots of ways single fathers lose their wives; the strangest may be how Mo (Fraser) ended up alone. When Mo reads a book out loud, the characters magically pop out of the fictional world and into ours. But to keep the balance, someone from our world is sent to the fictional world, which is how Mo’s wife disappeared into the pages of a book called Inkheart. Now Mo and his daughter Meggie (Eliza Bennett) have to get her back.
DVD Extras: “Eliza Reads to Us”
June 30
STONE OF DESTINY
Stars: Charlie Cox, Kate Mara
Director: Charles Martin Smith (The Snow Walker)
Story: In this based-on-a-true-story thriller, Cox plays Ian Hamilton, a young Scottish nationalist who, in the 1950s, caused a furor by stealing the Stone of Scone from England and bringing it back to Scotland. For centuries, the stone was a part of Scottish coronation ceremonies, then in 1296 it was seized by the Brits and taken to Westminster Abbey where it was used in their coronations.