Here's a selection of new movies on DVD for January 2009.
Vin Diesel stars in this sci-fi actioner directed by Mathieu Kassovitz. In a dystopian near future, Toorop (Diesel) is a mercenary who's hired by a mobster (Gérard Depardieu). The job is to transport a young woman named Aurora (Mélanie Thierry) from somewhere in the former Soviet Union to the high priestess (Charlotte Rampling) of some religion in New York. Traveling with Toorop and Aurora is a nun (Michelle Yeoh), and there are many violent action sequences along the way. Aurora is either the carrier of a deadly disease or some sort of a messiah.
This is a Christian relationship drama that has a church in Albany, Georgia, behind it. The cast is made up of nonprofessional actors, except the lead is played by Kirk Cameron (
Left Behind,
Growing Pains). In the movie, Caleb (Cameron) is a firefighter who is terrific at his job, but struggling with personal problems. After seven years of marriage, he and his wife are contemplating divorce. But he is given a book titled
The Love Dare, a 40-day program intended to strengthen marriages. Caleb elects to put the divorce on hold while he tries to follow the steps in the book.
This animated comedy takes place in the gloomy Kingdom of Malaria, where the hunchback Igor (voice of John Cusack) toils away in a lab. Others there include a brain (voice of Sean Hayes) in a jar and a rabbit (voice of Steve Buscemi). Igor decides to enter a competition to create an evil invention and puts together a Frankenstein-like female monster named Eva (voice of Molly Shannon). But Eva turns out to be sweet-natured, and Igor starts to fall for her. Other voices heard in the movie include Jay Leno, John Cleese, Jennifer Coolidge and Eddie Izzard.
Samuel L. Jackson stars in this thriller directed by Neil LaBute. Young marrieds Chris and Lisa Mattson (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington) move into a house in what looks like a pleasant and comfortable suburban-style development. But he's white and she's black, and this turns out to incense their African-American neighbor, Abel Turner (Jackson), a veteran cop. Turner is a single dad who feels the Mattsons are a bad influence on his kids, and he makes their lives miserable to try to get them to leave. Meanwhile, the Mattsons deal with other issues of being an interracial couple.
Mark Wahlberg plays the title character in this actioner derived from a video game. Payne is a New York City police detective who is obsessed with finding the killer of his wife and child. He is joined by a Russian woman (Mila Kunis) seeking justice for the slaying of her sister. Other characters include Payne's trusted friend (Beau Bridges), an Internal Affairs cop (Ludacris) and a great-looking woman (Olga Kurylenko). Payne's quest takes him through a dark world, and at the center of everything is a powerful, addictive drug that has very strange effects on humans.
A loose remake of a 2003 Korean film, this horror movie stars Kiefer Sutherland and was directed by Alexandre Aja. Sutherland plays Ben Carson, a disgraced New York City policeman who is battling alcoholism. Carson is estranged from his wife (Paula Patton), with whom he has two kids. He takes a job as a night security guard at a department store that has been closed due to a fire, and while patrolling he sees appalling things in the mirrors. It turns out the store is inhabited by evil spirits which soon go after Carson's wife and kids, and he struggles to try to save his family.
Comic Dane Cook stars in this comedy in which Kate Hudson and Jason Biggs play key supporting roles. Tank (Cook) is a crude, foulmouthed fellow who gets paid by men who have been dumped to take their ex-girlfriend out on a horrible date. The idea is that she will then come running back to her old boyfriend. Hence, when Dustin (Biggs) gets dumped by Alexis (Hudson), he hires Tank, his best friend, to take her out. But the plan begins going awry when Tank and Alexis start to fall for each other. Alec Baldwin plays Tank's philandering father.
Seth Rogen and James Franco star as buddies in this stoner comedy from the Judd Apatow laugh factory. Dale (Rogen) is a process server whose drug dealer Saul (Franco) sells him a fabulous kind of marijuana called Pineapple Express. When Dale goes to serve a summons, he witnesses a murder by a drug lord (Gary Cole) and a corrupt cop (Rosie Perez). Dale flees, but leaves behind a roach, which the killers quickly realize must have come from Saul. That's when Dale and Saul go on the lam with some incompetent hit men in pursuit. It all ends up in a gangland war.
Screen legends Robert De Niro and Al Pacino both play veteran New York police detectives in this thriller. Turk (De Niro) and Rooster (Pacino) have been partners for years, and they are working together on the case of a serial killer whose victims have all committed violent crimes, but are turned loose by the courts. A younger pair of cops (John Leguizamo and Donnie Wahlberg) is also assigned to the case. But suspicion begins to mount that the killer might be a member of the police force meting out vigilante justice. Other actors appearing in the movie are Carla Gugino and Brian Dennehy.
This horror movie is the gruesome follow-up to
Saw (2004),
Saw II (2005),
Saw III (2006) and
Saw IV (2007). Although the sadistic main character Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) died in
Saw III, he is nonetheless at the center of
Saw V via flashbacks. The focus of the series remains on inventive ways to torture people. In an earlier movie, FBI Agent Strahm (Scott Patterson) escaped from one of Jigsaw's ordeals, and in
Saw V he is investigating how it is the grisly killings are still going on. It begins to look as if Jigsaw's diabolical work is being carried on by a police detective (Costas Mandylor).
Produced, written and directed by Tyler Perry, this is a soapy drama in which he plays only a supporting role. The big-name stars are Kathy Bates and Alfre Woodard portraying women who head up two very different Atlanta families. Charlotte (Bates) is the upper-middle-class head of a construction company, while Alice (Woodard) is a working-class woman who runs a small diner. Their adult children manage to cause them all manner of problems, and the two women decide to head out together on a cross-country automobile trip on which many things happen.
Written and directed by Woody Allen, this comedy stars Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson and Rebecca Hall. Vicky (Hall) and Cristina (Johansson) are young American women who visit Barcelona for several weeks. One of the film's charms is the location shooting in and around the Spanish city, which features famous Gaudí architecture. Both women end up in sexual relationships with Juan Antonio (Bardem), a celebrated painter they meet on their trip. But things get even more complicated when his sexy, violent ex-wife (Cruz) comes back into his life.
