Best DVD & Blu-rays Released December 2011
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Friends with Benefits
Story centers on a headhunter who recruits a magazine editor for a job, and realizing each is too busy to find a mate, they agree to sleep together with no strings attached. However, things start to get complicated when the guy falls for the girl, who’s started dating someone else.
Emma Stone, Woody Harrelson, Mila Kunis, Justin Timberlake, Patricia Clarkson, Richard Jenkins, Andy Samberg, Will Gluck
Comedy Romance
4 / 5
Play Trailer The Smurfs
"The Smurfs" are little blue creatures that live in mushroom houses in a forest inhabited mainly by their own kind.
Kenan Thompson, Paul Reubens, Hank Azaria, Raja Gosnell, Jordan Kerner, Neil Patrick Harris, Sofia Vergara, Quentin Tarantino
Adventure Comedy Fantasy Family Kids Animated 3D Live-Action/CGI
4 / 5
Play Trailer Seven Days In Utopia
Luke Chisolm, a talented young golfer set on making the pro tour but his first big shot turns out to be a public disaster. Luke escapes the pressures of the game and finds himself unexpectedly stranded in Utopia, Texas. It is home to eccentric rancher Johnny Crawford who forces Luke to question not only his past choices, but his direction for the future.
Robert Duvall, Melissa Leo, Matt Russell, Lucas Black, Deborah Ann Woll
Drama
3 / 5
Play Trailer Advertisement
The Hangover Part II
Sequel to the 2009 box office hit "The Hangover".
Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Nick Cassavetes, Ken Jeong, Paul Giamatti, Thomas Tull, Todd Phillips, Jon Jashni
Comedy Sequel
3 / 5
Play Trailer The Debt
Twenty years after World War II's end, three Mossad agents learn that a Nazi war criminal is still alive and set out to pursue him across Europe.
Jane Goldman, Tom Wilkinson, Jessica Chastain, Helen Mirren, Kris Thykier, John Madden, Matthew Vaughn, Ciaran Hinds
Drama Thriller Suspense
3 / 5
Play Trailer The Help
Story follows a young white woman in the early 1960s in Mississippi who becomes interested in the plight of the African-American domestic servants that every family has working for them. She writes their stories about mistreatment, abuse and heartbreak, all just before the Civil Rights revolution.
Emma Stone, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jessica Chastain, David Oyelowo, Viola Davis, Chris Columbus, Kathryn Stockett, Allison Janney
Drama Adaptation
4 / 5
Play Trailer Cowboys and Aliens
Set in 1800s Arizona, a battle between cowboys and Apaches is interrupted by the crash landing of a space ship. The alien commander plans to tame the Old West and enslave everyone, but the cowboys and Native Americans turn their six-guns against the alien invaders.
Sam Rockwell, Olivia Wilde, Jon Favreau, Ron Howard, Alex Kurtzman, Steven Spielberg, Daniel Craig, Clancy Brown
Drama Action Adventure Western Sci-Fi
3 / 5
Play Trailer Mr. Popper's Penguins
A house painter's dreams of Arctic exploration prompt him to write letters to real explorers. One of them sends him a penguin, which he keeps in the icebox. Before he knows it, the painter has a litter of 12 beaked birds. They eat voraciously, leading him to form Popper's Performing Penguins, a stage act that goes on tour and creates mayhem at every stop.
Jim Carrey, Angela Lansbury, John Davis, Clark Gregg, John Morris, Sean Anders, Mark Waters, Carla Gugino
Adventure Family
4 / 5
Play Trailer Astral City: A Spiritual Journey
Follows a doctor who dies and is taken to a spirit colony where he finds out about the afterlife and reincarnation.
Wagner de Assis
Drama
Life, Above All
A drama, based on the novel Chanda's Secrets, about AIDS orphans in South Africa.
Oliver Schmitz
Drama
4 / 5
More Info Archie's Final Project
Archie Williams (Gabriel Sunday) is a 17-year old media geek who has suddenly found himself the most talked-about kid in school. He has announced that he's going to kill himself - on camera - for a class project. His classmates, parents, Sierra - the most beautiful girl in school (Brooke Nevin), and a "Shady Bunch" of shrinks, doctors, pill-pushers, and counselors descend on Archie. Some are hoping to save him, some want to imitate him, others try to push him over the brink. Archie films every moment of his high school experience, hiding nothing from his audience: realities of life, death, violence, sex, drugs, and the intense media overload and hypocrisy that bombard all teenagers.
Michael Welch, Mariel Hemingway, Brooke Nevin, Nora Dunn, Gabriel Sunday, David Carradine, David Lee Miller
Drama Comedy
4 / 5
Play Trailer Point Blank
A hospital nurse forced to do the bidding of a criminal after his pregnant wife is kidnapped.
Gilles Lellouche, Gerard Lanvin, Elena Anaya, Fred Cavaye, Roschdy Zem, Mireille Perrier
Thriller Crime
3 / 5
Play Trailer The Afterlight
A young couple moves into an old schoolhouse on a desolate stretch of farm country. Hoping for a new beginning, their lives are instead drawn toward dark and unforeseen ends.
Jicky Schnee, Michael Kelly, Ana Asensio, Craig Macneill, Alexei Kaleina, Rip Torn, Morgan Taddeo
Drama
5 / 5
More Info Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Said to be a rebooth of the "Planet of the Apes" franchise.
James Franco, Tom Felton, David Oyelowo, Peter Chernin, Freida Pinto, Andy Serkis, Dylan Clark, Rick Jaffa
Action Adventure Sci-Fi Prequel Reboot
4 / 5
Play Trailer Kung Fu Panda 2
No plot details have been announced.
Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Jack Black, Lucy Liu, Guillermo del Toro, Dustin Hoffman, Michelle Yeoh
Action Adventure Sequel Family Kids Animated 3D
4 / 5
Play Trailer Fright Night
A teenager discovers his neighbors are vampires.
Colin Farrell, Imogen Poots, Toni Collette, David Tennant, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Michael De Luca, Craig Gillespie, Marti Noxon
Comedy Horror Remake 3D
4 / 5
Play Trailer Tanner Hall
Set in a boarding school, four teenage girls navigate adolescence while the adults in their world, the parents and teachers, struggle with their own midlife hurdles.
Rooney Mara, Tom Everett Scott, Amy Sedaris, Chris Kattan, Francesca Gregorini, Julie Snyder, Tatiana von Furstenberg
Drama
2 / 5
Play Trailer Mere Brother Ki Dulhan
A young man tries to arrange a marriage for his brother, but finds himself falling in love with the chosen fiancée.
Katrina Kaif, Ali Abbas Zafar
Comedy Romance
3 / 5
Play Trailer Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame
When the mysterious deaths of a series of loyal subjects threaten to delay the 690 A.D. inauguration of Empress Wu, China's only female leader, she calls the infamous Detective Dee back from an exile into which she cast him eight years earlier.
Nansun Shi, Chen Kuofu, Andy Lau, Tsui Hark
Thriller Mystery Martial Arts
4 / 5
Play Trailer The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975
Documentary about the black power movement using previously unseen footage.
Goran Hugo Olsson
Documentary
1 / 5
More Info Circumstance
A wealthy family in Iran struggling to contain a teen's growing sexual rebellion.
Nikohl Boosheri, Maryam Keshavarz, Sarah Kazemy
Drama
3 / 5
Play Trailer Daddy Longlegs
Lenny juggles his kids and everything else all within a midtown studio apartment in New York City. He must choose between being their father or their friend all with the idea that their two weeks together must last 6 months.
Ben Safdie, Joshua Safdie
Drama Comedy
3 / 5
More Info Eames: The Architect and the Painter
The husband-and-wife team of Charles and Ray Eames are widely regarded as America's most important designers. Perhaps best remembered for their mid-century plywood and fiberglass furniture, the Eames Office also created a mind-bending variety of other products, from splints for wounded military during World War II, to photography, interiors, multi-media exhibits, graphics, games, films and toys. But their personal lives and influence on significant events in American life - from the development of modernism, to the rise of the computer age - has been less widely understood.
James Franco, Jason Cohn, Bill Jersey
Biography Documentary
5 / 5
Play Trailer Advertisement
Warrior
A mixed-martial-arts saga about two estranged brothers on a collision course to fight in a tournament for the heavyweight championship.
Tom Hardy, Frank Grillo, Joel Edgerton, Greg O'Connor, Gavin O'Connor, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Morrison, A.M. Tambakis
Drama Sports Martial Arts
4 / 5
Play Trailer Colombiana
"Columbiana" is set in Latin America and the U.S. Saldana would play a young woman who, after witnessing her parents' murder as a child in Bogota, grows up to be a stone-cold assassin. She works for her uncle as a hitman by day, but her personal time is spent engaging in vigilante murders that she hopes will lead her to her ultimate target: the mobster responsible for her parents' death.
Amandla Stenberg, Zoe Saldana, Luc Besson, Michael Vartan, Robert Mark Kamen, Olivier Megaton, Pierre-Ange Le Pogam
Action Thriller
4 / 5
Play Trailer Dolphin Tale
A young boy befriends Winter, an injured dolphin who lost her tail in a crab trap, and motivates everyone around him to help save the dolphin by creating a prosthetic appendage to replace the dolphin's missing tail. Harry Connick Jr. plays a vet who rescues the mammal and brings her to runs the marine hospital he runs. Ashley Judd plays the boy's mother while Morgan Freeman is a doctor who creates a prosthetic limb for Winter.
Morgan Freeman, Austin Highsmith, Nathan Gamble, Austin Stowell, Charles Martin Smith, Kris Kristofferson, Ashley Judd, Jim Fitzpatrick
Drama Family 3D Shot-In-3D
4 / 5
Play Trailer Glee: The 3D Concert Movie
A 3D concert movie based on the performances from Glee Live! In Concert!
Chris Colfer, Kevin Tancharoen, Lea Michele, Dianna Agron, Heather Morris, Ryan Murphy, Jenna Ushkowitz, Kevin McHale
Music Concert 3D
3 / 5
Play Trailer Straw Dogs
A young man and his wife move to a rural area where they face increasingly vicious local harassment.
Alexander Skarsgard, Dominic Purcell, James Marsden, Kate Bosworth, Reed Steiner, James Woods, Rod Lurie, Marc Frydman
Drama Thriller Suspense Remake
3 / 5
Play Trailer Margin Call
In the early stages of the financial crisis, eight people at large investment banks attempt to position themselves in anticipation of the coming collapse.
Kevin Spacey, Stanley Tucci, Demi Moore, Jeremy Irons, Mary McDonnell, Zachary Quinto, J.C. Chandor, Simon Baker
Drama Thriller
4 / 5
Play Trailer Midnight in Paris
No plot details have been announced.
Rachel McAdams, Tom Hiddleston, Michael Sheen, Owen Wilson, Elsa Pataky, Mimi Kennedy, Marion Cotillard, Adrien Brody
Drama Comedy
3 / 5
Play Trailer Catch .44
Three women are thrust into an extraordinary situation involving a psychopathic hitman, a grizzled trucker and a delusional line cook.
Bruce Willis, Curtis Jackson, Forest Whitaker, Randall Emmett, Megan Ellison, Malin Akerman, Kate Mara, George Furla
Drama Thriller
2 / 5
Play Trailer Senna
Senna's remarkable story, charting his physical and spiritual achievements on the track and off, his quest for perfection, and the mythical status he has since attained, is the subject of SENNA, a documentary feature that spans the racing legend's years as an F1 driver, from his opening season in 1984 to his untimely death a decade later. Far more than a film for F1 fans, Senna unfolds a remarkable story in a remarkable manner, eschewing many standard documentary techniques in favor of a more cinematic approach that makes full use of astounding footage, much of which is drawn from F1 archives and previously unseen.
Asif Kapadia
Biography Sports Documentary
4 / 5
Play Trailer Stay Cool
The project is described as a "knowing-your-age comedy," centering on a successful author (Polish) who is forced to confront an unrequited high school crush (Ryder) when he returns home to deliver a commencement address to graduating seniors.
Hilary Duff, Winona Ryder, Chevy Chase, Sean Astin, Michael Polish, Mark Polish, Ken Johnson, Jon Cryer
Comedy
3 / 5
Play Trailer Julia's Eyes
The film tells the story of a woman slowly going blind as she investigates the mysterious death of her twin sister.
Guillermo del Toro, Guillem Morales, Joan Dalma, Lluis Homar, Pablo Derqui, Julia Gutierrez Caba, Francesc Orella
Horror
Blackthorn
An old American named cowboy in Bolivia who dreams of returning to the US. crosses paths with a young Spanish mining engineer accused of robbing a mine, and the two slowly strike up a friendship.
Stephen Rea, Sam Shepard, Eduardo Noriega, Mateo Gil
Drama Western
3 / 5
Play Trailer Mysteries of Lisbon
The drama follows a jealous countess, a wealthy businessman, and a young orphaned boy.
Léa Seydoux, Raoul Ruiz, Clotilde Hesme, Melvil Poupaud, Carlos Saboga
Drama
3 / 5
Play Trailer Burke and Hare
The story centers on two bankrobbers in 19th century Edinburgh.
Tom Wilkinson, Simon Pegg, Andy Serkis, John Landis, Dan Aykroyd, Isla Fisher, James Spring, Nick Moorcroft
Comedy Crime
2 / 5
Play Trailer Advertisement
Final Destination 5
The fifth installment of the franchise in which teens escape a deadly accident only to later discover that death is hunting them down. The opening scene will involve a suspension bridge and another scene reportedly involves a character undergoing laser-eye surgery.
Eric Heisserer, Walter Hamada, Steven Quale, David Koechner, Emma Bell, Craig Perry, Tony Todd, Arlen Escarpeta
Sequel Thriller Horror 3D Shot-In-3D
4 / 5
Play Trailer Apollo 18
The story follows film footage purported to have been shot by the crew of Apollo 18. This moon mission from the early 1970s was officially canceled by NASA, but according to urban legend, it actually happened. Footage shows signs of alien life, and the events of the mission are built into a thriller storyline.
Timur Bekmambetov, Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego, Michele Wolkoff, Harvey Weinstein, Bob Weinstein, Ron Schmidt, Cody Zwieg, Brian Miller
Thriller Suspense Sci-Fi Documentary
3 / 5
Play Trailer The First Grader
Based on a true story, an 84-year-old Kenyan fights to go to school after the country introduces universal education.
Ann Peacock, Justin Chadwick
Drama
4 / 5
Play Trailer Pete Smalls Is Dead
After hitting rock bottom when his faithful dog is kidnapped by a loan shark, K.C. (Peter Dinklage) sets off on an unexpected and hilarious adventure of redemption and retribution when he agrees to meet up with his long-time friend Jack (Mark Boone Junior) in Los Angeles to attend the funeral of their mutual friend and hot shot Hollywood director Pete Smalls (Tim Roth).
Peter Dinklage, Steve Buscemi, Tim Roth, Rosie Perez, Alexandre Rockwell
Comedy
A Good Old Fashioned Orgy
A group of 30-something friends host an orgy at the end of summer.
Martin Starr, Jason Sudeikis, Lindsay Sloane, Leslie Bibb, Lake Bell, Lucy Punch, James D. Stern, Alex Gregory
Comedy
3 / 5
Play Trailer Love Crime
When Christine, a powerful executive (Scott Thomas), brings on a naive young ingenue, Isabelle (Sagnier), as her assistant, she delights in toying with her naivete and teaching her hard lessons in a ruthless professional philosophy. But when the protege's ideas become tempting enough for Christine to pass one as her own, she underestimates Isabelle's ambition and cunning-- and the ground is set for all out war. In this devilish, propulsive thriller, Corneau sets up a the scenery expertly and his actors devour it.
Ludivigne Sagnier, Patrick Mille, Kristin Scott Thomas, Alain Corneau
Thriller Crime Mystery
1 / 5
Play Trailer Buck
Master horse trainer Buck Brannaman uses principles of respect and trust to tame horses and inspire their human counterparts.
Cindy Meehl, Buck Brannaman
Documentary
5 / 5
Play Trailer Brighton Rock
The story centers on a small-time gangster who kills a rival and finds his life in turmoil as he faces blackmail threats from a waitress (Andrea Riseborough) who knows about the murder.
Andrea Riseborough, Andy Serkis, Sam Riley, Sean Harris, Pete Postlethwaite, Rowan Joffe, Paul Webster, John Hurt
Drama
4 / 5
Play Trailer Jane's Journey
The film travels with animal research and wildlife conservatist Jane Goodall across several continents from her childhood home in England, to the Gombe National Park in Tanzania.
Lorenz Knauer
Biography Documentary
5 / 5
Play Trailer Tuesday, After Christmas
In the days leading up to Christmas, a married man forces himself to choose between his wife and his mistress.
Radu Muntean
Drama Romance
3 / 5
More Info Pearl Jam Twenty
Pearl Jam Twenty chronicles the years leading up to the band's formation, the chaos that ensued soon-after their rise to megastardom, their step back from center stage, and the creation of a trusted circle that would surround them-giving way to a work culture that would sustain them.
Cameron Crowe
Documentary Music
3 / 5
Play Trailer