DVD & Blu-rays Released February 19, 2008

Tuesday, February 19

157 mins

American Gangster R

Based on the life of drug-kingpin-turned-informant, Frank Lucas, who grew up in segregated North Carolina where he watched as his cousin was shot by the Klan for looking at a white girl. He eventually made his way to Harlem where he became a heroin kingpin by traveling to Asia's Golden Triangle to make connections, shipping heroin back to the US in the coffins of soldiers killed in Vietnam. He soon made upwards of one million dollars a day in drug sales. Lucas was shadowed by lawman, Richie Roberts, who finally helped bring the kingpin to justice. The two then worked together to expose the crooked cops and foreign nationals who made importing heroin so easy.
Ron Howard, Russell Crowe, Ridley Scott, Steve Zaillian, Terry George, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Dania Ramirez, Ted Levine
Drama Crime Gangster

Redacted

The film will be a montage of stories about U.S. soldiers fighting in the conflict. It will focus on the modern forms of media covering the war, including blogs, Web reporting and other aspects unique to the conflict will be featured heavily.
Jason Kliot, Brian De Palma, Joana Vicente, Simone Urdl, Jennifer Weiss will
War Documentary
156 mins

Lust, Caution R

Shanghai, 1942. The World War II Japanese occupation of this Chinese city continues in force. Mrs. Mak, a woman of sophistication and means, walks into a cafe, places a call, and then sits and waits. She remembers how her story began several years earlier, in 1938 China. She is not in fact Mrs. Mak, but shy Wong Chia Chi. With WWII underway, Wong has been left behind by her father, who has escaped to England. As a freshman at university, she meets fellow student Kuang Yu Min. Kuang has started a drama society to shore up patriotism. As the theater troupe's new leading lady, Wong realizes that she has found her calling, able to move and inspire audiences--and Kuang. He convenes a core group of students to carry out a radical and ambitious plan to assassinate a top Japanese collaborator, Mr. Yee. Each student has a part to play; Wong will be Mrs. Mak, who will gain Yee's trust by befriending his wife and then draw the man into an affair. Wong transforms herself utterly inside and out, and the scenario proceeds as scripted--until an unexpectedly fatal twist spurs her to flee. Shanghai, 1941. With no end in sight for the occupation, Wong--having emigrated from Hong Kong--goes through the motions of her existence. Much to her surprise, Kuang re-enters her life. Now part of the organized resistance, he enlists her to again become Mrs. Mak in a revival of the plot to kill Yee, who as head of the collaborationist secret service has become even more a key part of the puppet government. As Wong reprises her earlier role, and is drawn ever closer to her dangerous prey, she finds her very identity being pushed to the limit...
Tony Leung, Bill Kong, James Schamus, Wang Hui-Lang, Eileen Chang, Tang Wei, Wang Lee Hom
Drama
Advertisement

Margot at the Wedding R

Margot Zeller, a savagely bright, razor-tongued short-story writer who creates chaos wherever she goes, sets off on a surprise journey to the wedding of her estranged and free-spirited, unassuming sister Pauline. Margot, with her all-too-rapidly maturing son Claude in tow, arrives with the gale force of a hurricane. From the minute she meets Pauline's fiance--the unemployed artist Malcolm--Margot starts to plant seeds of doubt about the union. As the wedding approaches, one complication crashes into the next: vengeful neighbors, a beloved tree in the backyard and Margot's own marital turmoil. The two sisters find themselves at the precipice of an unexpected transformation ultimately revealing that even when your family is about to implode the one thing you can cling to for solace and comfort is your imploding family.
Jack Black, Scott Rudin, Noah Baumbach, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Zane Pais, Flora Cross, Halley Feiffe
Drama Comedy
120 mins

In the Valley of Elah R

Tommy Lee Jones will play a career soldier whose son mysteriously goes AWOL, shortly after returning to the U.S. from the front lines in Iraq. Charlize Theron will play a local police detective who helps him get to the bottom of the soldier's disappearance.
Tommy Lee Jones, Jason Patric, Frances Fisher, Paul Haggis, Tim McGraw, Larry Becsey, Charlize Theron, James Franco
Drama War
119 mins

Michael Clayton R

Michael Clayton is an in-house "fixer" at one of the largest corporate law firms in New York. A former criminal prosecutor, Clayton takes care of Kenner, Bach & Ledeen's dirtiest work at the behest of the firm's co-founder Marty Bach. Though burned out and hardly content with his job as a fixer, his divorce, a failed business venture and mounting debt have left Clayton inextricably tied to the firm. At U/North, meanwhile, the career of litigator Karen Crowder rests on the multi-million dollar settlement of a class action suit that Clayton's firm is leading to a seemingly successful conclusion. But when Kenner Bach's brilliant and guilt-ridden attorney Arthur Edens sabotages the U/North case, Clayton faces the biggest challenge of his career and his life.
George Clooney, Steven Soderbergh, Tom Wilkinson, Tony Gilroy, Steve Samuels, Tilda Swinton, Sydney Pollack
Drama Thriller Suspense

Spiral

The project revolves around a reclusive telemarketer (Joel David Moore), whose dysfunctional friendship with his boss (Zachary Levi) is alleviated when a whimsical co-worker (Amber Tamblyn) enters his life. But as he begins to sketch his new friend's portrait, disturbing feelings from his past threaten to lead him down a path of destruction.
Joel David Moore, Zachary Levi, Jeremy Danial Boreing, Amber Tamblyn
Drama Thriller Suspense
122 mins

Rendition R

A thriller that centers on Isabella El-Ibrahimi, the American wife of Egyptian-born chemical engineer Anwar El-Ibrahimi, who disappears on a flight from South Africa to Washington. Isabella desperately tries to track her husband down, while a CIA analyst at a secret detention facility outside the U.S. is forced to question his assignment as he becomes party to the man's unorthodox interrogation.
Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, Gavin Hood, Keith Redmon, Michael Sugar, Kelley Sane, Alan Arkin
Drama Thriller

Rhinoceros Eyes R

Chep, a reclusive young man, gets comfort from the movies and his vivid imagination. When Fran walks into the prop house where he lives looking for unusual objects, Chep immediately develops a crush. Obsessed with her job, for which she designs movie sets, Fran insists that each prop be the real thing, even if it happens to be a pair of rhinoceros eyes or a human finger. Chep's growing love for Fran makes him willing to prowl the dark streets at night in search of items for her. As Fran's requests become more peculiar, Chep is thrown into increasingly bizarre situations. His life quickly spirals out of control. As the strange thefts escalate, Detective Phil Barbara is assigned to the case and is soon on Chep and Fran's trail.
Michael Pitt, Aaron Woodley, Paige Turco, Gale Harold, Matt Servitto, Jim Allodi
Drama Suspense Horror

Tuesday, February 19