Here's a selection of new movies on DVD for December 2008.
David Zucker directed this spoof of liberals in general and Michael Moore in particular. The storyline loosely follows Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Kevin Farley (brother of the late Chris) plays Michael Maloney, an overweight documentary filmmaker whose most recent movie was Die, You American Pigs. Maloney is working to make July 4 a non-holiday, but he is visited by ghosts, including General George Patton (Kelsey Grammer) and George Washington (Jon Voight), as well as the Angel of Death (country singer Trace Adkins). One scene involves zombie ACLU attorneys.
The Coen brothers wrote and directed this quirky comedy that stars Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich and Tilda Swinton. Osborne Cox (Malkovich) loses his job at the CIA and begins to write his memoirs. His wife (Swinton) is having an affair with a US marshal named Harry Pfarrer (Clooney). But Harry gets a date with Linda Litzke (McDormand), a fitness center employee seeking money for cosmetic surgery. She and coworker Chad Feldheimer (Pitt) obtain Cox's memoirs, mistake them for secrets and try to sell them to the Russians.
Jason Statham stars in this violent actioner that is an update of the 1975 movie
Death Race 2000. This time around the story is set in 2012. With the American economy in ruins, private companies operate penitentiaries for profit. Jensen Aimes (Statham) is framed for the murder of his wife and sent to the maximum-security prison at Terminal Island, which is run by a nefarious warden (Joan Allen). The prison makes big bucks from pay-per-view races where inmates drive souped-up militarized vehicles and kill each other. Winners of the races are set free.
Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan star in this action thriller. Jerry (LaBeouf) is a copy store employee who suddenly finds his apartment filled with illegal weaponry and $750,000 in his bank account. Rachel (Monaghan) is a single mom who gets a message her son will be killed if she doesn't do certain things. Soon Jerry and Rachel are thrown together on a strange odyssey under the direction of a disembodied voice from someone or something that has fantastic powers to control electronic devices. But the movie is mostly about chases, explosions and people being slaughtered.
Ricky Gervais, Téa Leoni and Greg Kinnear star in this comedy. The main character is Manhattan dentist Bertram Pincus (Gervais), a bachelor with no friends. While having a routine colonoscopy, he has a near-death experience that leaves him with the ability to communicate with ghosts. The deceased have unfinished business, and they pester him to take care of it. One of the ghosts is Frank (Kinnear), who fears his widow, an Egyptologist named Gwen (Leoni), is about to make a bad marriage. As Pincus gets to know Gwen, he starts to fall for her.
Dr. Seuss stories were the basis for the live-action movies
How the Grinch Stole Christmas and
The Cat in the Hat, but
Horton Hears a Who! is an animated film from the makers of the
Ice Age movies. Horton (voice of Jim Carrey) is an elephant in the jungle, and one day he hears voices coming from what looks like a speck of dust. On that speck is a town inhabited by creatures known as Whos. The mayor of the town is voiced by Steve Carell. The story is about the struggle to keep the Whos from being destroyed. Other actors heard are Carol Burnett, Will Arnett and Seth Rogen.
Meryl Streep stars in this screen adaptation of the popular stage musical built around songs by the Swedish pop group Abba, the best known of which is "Dancing Queen." The setting is a picturesque Greek island where Donna (Streep) owns and operates an inn. The story centers on the wedding of Donna's daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried). Donna's old pals (Christine Baranski and Julie Walters) are guests, as are three men (Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgard, Colin Firth), one of whom turns out to be Sophie's father. Streep's big number is "The Winner Takes It All."
This documentary centers on an audacious feat accomplished on August 7, 1974, when a Frenchman named Philippe Petit walked across a cable strung between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. (The film makes no reference to the destruction of the towers in the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001.) The cable was 200 feet long and at a height of 1,350 feet above the ground. The stunt was illegal and required months of preparation. Told through archival footage and photos, interviews and reenactments, the story unfolds like a thriller.
Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly star in this comedy produced by Judd Apatow. Brennan (Ferrell) and Dale (Reilly) are about 40, but they are unemployed slackers living in a state of extended adolescence. Brennan lives with his single dad Robert (Richard Jenkins), while Dale resides with his single mom Nancy (Mary Steenburgen). But Robert and Nancy get married and move in together, and Brennan and Dale end up living with the newlyweds. In this arrangement, the spoiled idlers are forced to share a bedroom, leading to all manner of comic complications.
This fantasy film is the second based on the seven-part series of books written by C.S. Lewis. The earlier movie was 2005's
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Between films, the four Pevensie siblings spend a year of their lives in England, but they return to Narnia to find that 1300 years have passed there. The lion Aslan (voice of Liam Neeson) is still around, but much has changed. An evil usurper is preventing the rightful king, Prince Caspian, from becoming ruler. An important new character is the Red Dwarf (Peter Dinklage). This time around, there are big battles.
