Week 1 (Street Date 1/5/2010)

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Adam

Studio: Fox MPAA Rating: PG13 Genre: Dramedy Pre Order Date: 12/8/09 Video Release Date: 1/5/2010 Box Office Sales / Broadcast Details: 2.3 Number Of Screens: 177 Theatrical / Broadcast Release Date: 2009 HBO Director: Max Mayer Cast: Hugh Dancy, Rose Byrne, Peter Galllagher, Amy Irving Videoretailer.com Review: Hugh Dancy stars as a man living with Asperger's syndrome who does his best to reach out to his pretty new upstairs neighbor ‘Beth’ (Rose Byrne), but due to his condition, he isn't the best when it comes to communicating. Though he frequently escapes by submersing himself in the world of space exploration, Adam senses an opportunity for a real human connection after Beth moves upstairs, and as Adam attempts to gain control of his awkward, sometimes embarrassing social skills, he discovers that with a little patience and understanding, developing a meaningful relationship might not be as hard as he previously thought. Very good quirky indie melodramedy has good performances and all, but is ultimately a sappy crowd pleaser that may even solicit a few sniffles as it spins a sweet tale about a nice guy with Asperger’s and a nice girl willing to put up with it. While the critics were lukewarm with this, the consumer was much more adoring…this also won a Sundance Feature Film Prize, and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. Not a whole lot of starpower here, but there will be some good mild mainstream interest. Most should be alright with 1-5. IMDB User Rating = 7.4 (out of 10).

Big Love - Season 3 (4dsc)

Studio: HBO MPAA Rating: NR Genre: Drama Pre Order Date: 11/30/2009 Video Release Date: 1/5/2010 Box Office Sales / Broadcast Details: Cable09 Number Of Screens: HBO Theatrical / Broadcast Release Date: 2009 HBO Director: Cast: Bill Paxton, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloe Sevigny, Amanda Seyfried Videoretailer.com Review: Season 3 of 3 and counting, this HBO drama stars Bill Paxton as ‘Bill Henrickson’, a Salt Lake City owner of a hardware store chain who has parted ways with the extremist Mormon sect ‘United Effort Brotherhood’, but still maintains his three wives (Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloe Sevigny, Ginnifer Goodwin), all living in different houses in the same neighborhood. As Bill tries to juggle his matrimonial trio, he also needs to contend with the various subsequent dramas, issues with his business, and a blackmailing father-in-law. Quite popular HBO show has been nominated for 4 Golden Globes and has been well-received by the critics and its fairly solid consumer fanbase. Season 4 premiers 1/10. See how season 2 (11/07) did for you and buy accordingly.

Chuck - Season 2 (6dsc)

Studio: Warner MPAA Rating: NR Genre: Action Pre Order Date: 11/30/2009 Video Release Date: 1/5/2010 Box Office Sales / Broadcast Details: TV08  Number Of Screens: NBC Theatrical / Broadcast Release Date: 2008 NBC Director: Cast: Bonita Fridericy, Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski Videoretailer.com Review: Season 2 of 2 and counting, this NBC action-comedy centers on ‘Chuck Bartowski’ (Zachary Levi), a computer geek who gets catapulted into a new career as the government's most vital secret agent when he opens an e-mail subliminally encoded with government secrets and unwittingly downloads an entire server of sensitive data into his brain. With the government's most precious secrets in Chuck's head, ‘Major John Casey’ of the National Security Agency (Adam Baldwin) assumes the responsibility of protecting him while his partner is the CIA's top agent (and Chuck's first date in years), ‘Sarah Walker’ (Yvonne Strahovski). Okay new show found a pretty decent core fanbase and while season 1 finished off the season ranked at #65, season 2 faltered a bit finishing at #71…NBC announced that the show was on the cancellation bubble, but ordered 13 more episodes after a successful grass-roots “Save Chuck” campaign. See how the first season (released 9/08) did for you.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs

Studio: Sony MPAA Rating: PG Genre: Anim Family Pre Order Date: 12/2/2009 Video Release Date: 1/5/2010 Box Office Sales / Broadcast Details: 125.0 Number Of Screens: 3119 Theatrical / Broadcast Release Date: 9/18/09 Director: Phil Lord Cast: Voices of: Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Any Samberg, Bruce Campbell, Mr. T, Neil Patrick Harris Videoretailer.com Review: CGI-animated film that follows inventor ‘Flint Lockwood’ (voice of Bill Hader) and a brainy weathergirl ‘Sam Sparks’(Anna Faris) as they attempt to discover why the rain in their small town has stopped, and food is falling in its place. Meanwhile, lifelong bully ‘Brent’ (Andy Samberg) relishes in tormenting Flint like he did when they were kids, and Mayor ‘Shelbourne’ (Bruce Campbell) schemes to use Flint's latest invention -- a device designed to improve everyone's lives -- for his own personal gain. Fun and entertaining animated family film isn’t eye-poppingly amazing, but it is a good, kid and adult-friendly film that found good reviews from critics and consumer…many of whom loved the 3-D element – an element that doesn’t appear to be available with this DVD release. No matter however, this will have very good initial demand throughout all demographics, and should show a little endurance. Compare with 3/09’s “Bolt”. IMDB User Rating = 7.5 (out of 10).

Falling Up

Studio: Anchor Bay MPAA Rating: PG13 Genre: Dramedy Pre Order Date: 12/2/2009 Video Release Date: 1/5/2010 Box Office Sales / Broadcast Details: DTV  Number Of Screens: Theatrical / Broadcast Release Date: Director: David Rosenthal Cast: Joseph Cross, Sarah Roemer, Snoop Dog, Rachael Leigh Cook Videoretailer.com Review: When blue-collar nursing student ‘Henry O’Shea’ (Joseph Cross) is forced to quit school after his father dies in a freak accident, his uncle finds him a job as a doorman at a richy-rich Manhatan apartment building where he’s taken under the wing of slick doorman ‘Raul’ (Snoop Dogg) who hazes Henry while showing him the ropes. Before long however, Henry breaks rule #1 and falls for the daughter of a wealthy tenant ‘Scarlett Downing’ (Sarah Roemer), and with the assistance of his match-making sister (Rachael Leigh Cook), tries to navigate a fine line to an unlikely romance. Direct to video romantic comedy has a pretty good cast for a DTV indie that after being released to video in Australia 6/09, found lukewarm reviews…consensus saying that it’s a clichéd but mildly enjoyable film. Star-power will help find mainstream interest, but don’t expect anything big out of this. Maybe compare with 6/09’s “Baby On Board”.

Fifty Dead Men Walking

Studio: Peace Arch MPAA Rating: R Genre: Action Pre Order Date: 11/30/2009 Video Release Date: 1/5/2010 Box Office Sales / Broadcast Details: Ltd Number Of Screens: Fests Theatrical / Broadcast Release Date: 2008 Fests / Wide Non-US Director: Kari Skogland Cast: Ben Kingsley, Jim Sturgess, Kevin Zegers, Rose McGowan Videoretailer.com Review: Set in Belfast in 1980 where the Irish Republican Army is waging an all-out insurgent war against the British occupation, ‘Martin McGartland’ (Jim Sturgess) is a young small-time Belfast hustler recruited by British intelligence agent ‘Fergus’ (Ben Kingsley) to infiltrate the IRA, and Martin quickly uses his con man instincts to get inside the IRA to feed information to the British, saving hundreds of lives in the process. But with each successful mission, Martin becomes increasingly in danger of being caught and exposed, and as Martin becomes consumed by his double life, and his British handlers threaten to sell him out if he refuses to continue his counter-intelligence work, he’s plunged into a game of life & death. Based on the true story of Martin McGartland, a man who is still in hiding from the IRA, this gritty and violent film found lovers who called this a suspenseful masterpiece, and haters who did not like the flashy editing, visuals and soundtrack; they also took issue with film’s deviation from facts. Bottom line is, the starpower is impressive and the premise, that plays out like “Donnie Brasco” set in Ireland, is intriguing, and should find some mainstream interest. Most should be alright with 1 – 8. IMDB User Rating = 6.9 (out of 10).

Final Destination 4 (2D & 3D)

Studio: New Line MPAA Rating: R Genre: Horror Pre Order Date: 11/30/2009 Video Release Date: 1/5/2010 Box Office Sales / Broadcast Details: 66.6  Number Of Screens: 3121 Theatrical / Broadcast Release Date: 8/28/09 Director: David Ellis Cast: Bobby Campo, Shantel VanSanten, Nick Zano Videoretailer.com Review: When ‘Nick O’Bannon’ and his friends go to an auto racing event, Nick has a premonition that an accident causes extreme carnage in the stands, killing Nick, his friends and a host of other spectators, but Nick is able to warn his friends, and thusly avoids the imminent accident. But, as things play out as they always do in this franchise, Death’s design doesn’t exist to be avoided, and all those who should have died at the races, begin to meet their grisly demise one by one; now Nick scrambles to figure out how to cheat death once again. Pretty much non-stop gory action is the only highlight to this 4th installment to a franchise that has fallen flat. For the gore-hounds, there are loads of inventive ways the filmmakers have found to kill off teenagers, but everything else about this film is either run-of-the-mill, or entirely brain dead. The critics pretty much unanimously hated this…the consumer was a bit more mixed, but on average, was lukewarm at best…the impressive $67M box-office doesn’t correspond to the overall reviews. It appears that each disc will be 2D and 3D dual-sided…it’s not clear however if glasses will be provided. Initial appeal should be very good as these big box-office horror flicks usually are. Compare with 1/09’s “Saw V”. IMDB User Rating = 5.1 (out of 10).

Lorna's Silence

Studio: Sony MPAA Rating: R Genre: Drama Pre Order Date: 12/3/2009 Video Release Date: 1/5/2010 Box Office Sales / Broadcast Details: 0.3 Number Of Screens: 17 Theatrical / Broadcast Release Date: 7/31/09 Director: Jean-Pierre Dardenne Cast: Arta Dobroshi, Jeremie Renier - Belgium Videoretailer.com Review: ‘Lorna’ is a young Albanian woman living in Belgium who has her sights set on opening a snack bar with her boyfriend, ‘Sokol’, but in order to do so, she becomes an accomplice in a diabolical plan devised by mobster ‘Fabio’ who has set up a false marriage between Lorna and ‘Claudy’ (Jeremie Renier) allowing Lorna to get her Belgian citizenship. However, she’s then asked to marry a Russian mafioso who's ready to pay hard cash to also get his hands on the Belgian identity papers, and Fabio intends to kill Claudy in order to speed up the second marriage, but when Lorna moves to warn Claudy of Fabio’s plans, she runs the risk of becoming a part of Fabio’s deadly plot. Excellent Belgian crime-drama was a critic’s favorite, and also found success at various festivals, including winning Best Screenplay at Cannes. As with most foreign films, the reception will be limited by Joe Public, but the boxart does a nice job of touting the festival and critic accolades, helping this reach out to potential takers. Most should be alright with 1-4. IMDB User Rating = 7.2 (out of 10).

Trucker

Studio: Monterey MPAA Rating: NR Genre: Drama Pre Order Date: 12/7/2009 Video Release Date: 1/5/2010 Box Office Sales / Broadcast Details: 44K Number Of Screens: 12 Theatrical / Broadcast Release Date: 10/9/09 Director: James Mottern Cast: Michelle Monaghan, Joey Lauren Adams, Benjamin Bratt Videoretailer.com Review: ‘Diane Ford’ (Michelle Monaghan), a vivacious and successful independent truck driver, leads a carefree life of long-haul trucking, one night stands and all-night drinking until the evening her estranged 11-year-old son (Jimmy Bennett) shows up at her door. ‘Peter’ hasn't seen his mother since he was a baby and wants Diane as little as she wants him; but with his father ‘Len’ (Benjamin Bratt) in the hospital, Diane and Peter are stuck with each other - at least for a while. Burdened with this new responsibility and seeing the life of freedom she's fought for jeopardized, Diane steps reluctantly into her past and looks sidelong at a future that is not as simple or straightforward as she had once believed. Good slice of life indie boasts very good performances from the leads and found alright to pretty good reviews from the critics, but as far as being a destination title, it will probably fall short. There will probably be okay appeal with fans of human interest dramas, but again, the combination of starpower and premise isn’t awesome enough to transcend to any sort of broad mainstream interest; as a 1-4 copy indie however, this should work out alright. IMDB User Rating = 7.5 (out of 10).