More new movies on DVD for July 2008.
July 15, 2008
The Bank Job DVD
Jason Statham stars in this heist movie based loosely on a real-life 1971 robbery of a Lloyds Bank in London. Terry (Statham) is selling used cars when the good-looking Martine (Saffron Burrows) tells him he can score a lot of money by breaking into the safe-deposit boxes of a Baker Street bank. Terry quickly assembles a team and pulls off the caper, only to find himself in a complicated aftermath. The safe-deposit boxes turn out to hold cash and jewels as expected, but one of the plot twists is that they have other contents of interest to the government and MI5.
College Road Trip DVD
Martin Lawrence and the Disney Channel's Raven-Symoné star in this family-friendly comedy. James Porter (Lawrence) is the police chief in a small town near Chicago, and his daughter Melanie (Raven-Symoné) is a high school senior getting ready to go to college. James is pushing her to attend nearby Northwestern, but she's interested in schools some distance away, especially Georgetown in D.C. James, Melanie, her little brother and his amusing pet pig end up driving around to campuses, having adventures along the way. Donny Osmond appears in the movie.
Step Up 2 the Streets DVD
This dance film is the follow-up to Step Up (2006) and again features Baltimore's Maryland School of the Arts. However, Channing Tatum, the earlier movie's star, appears only near the beginning, and the story is then turned over to new characters played by new actors. This time around the main character is a girl named Andie (Briana Evigan). She enrolls in the school, gets involved with a hunky student (Robert Hoffman) and they form a dance group. The film's climax comes when Andie's group participates in the underground dance competition known as the Streets.
July 22, 2008
21 DVD
A glossy, lightweight drama, 21 is a Vegas story based loosely on Ben Mezrich's nonfiction book Bringing Down the House. Kevin Spacey and Laurence Fishburne appear in the movie, but the central character is MIT student Ben Campbell, played by Jim Sturgess. Because Ben needs money to go to Harvard Med School, he joins five other students, including good-looking Jill (Kate Bosworth), in a group lead by a math prof (Spacey). They then start using an elaborate card-counting scheme to win big at Vegas blackjack tables, but they run afoul of a casino security expert (Fishburne).
September Dawn DVD
Set in 1857, this drama is based loosely on a real-life incident, although the movie is not necessarily historically accurate. The incident was the Mountain Meadows Massacre, in which Utah Mormons killed 120 California-bound settlers on September 11, and the filmmakers were presumably trying to deliver a message about religion-based fanaticism. In the movie, Jon Voight plays a local Mormon leader whose son (Trent Ford) falls for a young woman (Tamara Hope) on the settlers' wagon train. The film also has actors portraying Brigham Young and Joseph Smith.
Vampyr DVD
This is the Criterion Collection 2-disc set containing Carl Theodor Dreyer's 1932 German-language horror film. The movie is based loosely on the 1872 Gothic novella Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu. The protagonist in the film is Allan Gray, a young student of the occult who happens upon an area outside Paris where strange and dreadful things take place. As he reads from a book about vampires, he goes through a series of eerie experiences and gradually discovers what is going on. The movie's strengths are psychological tension, striking images and hypnotic mood.
July 29, 2008
Doomsday DVD
Rhona Mitra (from TV's Boston Legal) plays the heroine in this post-apocalyptic actioner. The setting is a near-future Britain in which Scotland has been sealed off ever since a deadly plague struck there about 25 years ago. Now the same virus has surfaced in London, and the British government sends a team lead by policewoman Eden Sinclair (Mitra) into Scotland to search for a cure. There they encounter rampaging gangs of survivors who practice cannibalism. Also, the team learns that the key may lie with a mad scientist (Malcolm McDowell). There are many fights and chases.
Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay DVD
Kal Penn and John Cho are back as the title characters in this stoner comedy, the sequel to Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004). This time around, New Jersey residents Harold (Cho) and Kumar (Penn) are bound for Amsterdam when things go awry. On the airplane, Kumar has an unusual bong that is mistaken for a bomb, and the authorities conclude that the guys are terrorists sent by North Korea and Al Qaeda. Harold and Kumar are imprisoned at Gitmo, but escape and reach Miami. From there it's on to Texas, where a George W. Bush impersonator plays a role.
Never Back Down DVD
This drama centers on Orlando youths who are involved in mixed martial arts (MMA), a combat sport that allows fighting techniques from many traditions, including wrestling, karate, judo and sambo. A key story element is that videos of the fights can be viewed on the YouTube Internet site. The main character is Jake (Sean Faris), who relocates to Orlando from the Midwest, is attracted to the good-looking Baja (Amber Heard) and is beaten up by the bully Ryan (Cam Gigandet). But Jake trains with a master (Djimon Hounsou) and prepares for the inevitable rematch.
More July DVD Releases on the Previous Page
