New to On Demand & DVD

Resident Evil: Retribution, the fifth installment of the bloodthirsty franchise, finds Alice (Milla Jovovich) fighting alongside a resistance movement against the Umbrella Corporation and the undead. As always, the central figure in this gritty and gripping tale is Alice, played once again with implacable ferocity by Milla Jovovich. “Milla is a huge factor in the success of the films,” says Bolt. “One of the things that makes Resident Evil interesting is that we present a woman as a convincing action hero. She’s tough as hell. She’s a leader; she’s determined. If anybody’s going to beat Umbrella, it’s Alice.” Alice has evolved […]

David Koepp, director of the film Premium Rush, wanted to create a film whose plot unfolded “more or less in real time, very compressed, but wide open in terms of space.” He found his subject matter on the streets of New York City, where bike messengers are part of the everyday landscape. Koepp knew he wanted to be true to the realities faced by the bike messengers and the subculture they inhabit. So everyone who worked on the film spent as much time as possible with actual bike messengers, learning the ways of the messenger lifestyle. In addition, all of […]

In reimagining Philip K. Dick’s story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” for the 2012 update of Total Recall — the film was first rendered onscreen in 1990 and starred Arnold Schwarzenegger — director Len Wiseman and the other filmmakers did something a little devilish, if a little delicious as well: They cast Wiseman’s wife, Kate Beckinsale, as Douglas Quaid’s (Colin Farrell) seemingly loving wife, who of course turns out to be a savage killer. It was a turn that Beckinsale relished. “I’ve never played a bad guy before. I’ve always been on the side of truth and justice,” […]

How many good Part 4’s can you remember? Between that, and knowing that the lead star isn’t taking part, you could be excused for thinking that The Bourne Legacy seems like a clunker from the outset. Words like “cash grab” and “desperation” come to mind. So it’s nice to settle in and realize the filmmakers have actually put some thought into this installment of the reliable spy franchise. Jason Bourne, the amnesiac hero of the first three films, is only seen in photographs, though his presence is the catalyst for much of the action. The same black ops government program […]

With The Dark Knight Rises, the story arc that began with 2005’s Batman Begins comes full circle. At the start of this last chapter, the character Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) has been away from his role as Batman for eight years, his crime-fighting purpose having been largely fulfilled — as well as Batman’s status as a fugitive after having assumed responsibility for the death of Gotham City D.A. Harvey Dent. The long hiatus in hiding has had a dramatic effect on the mindset of both Bruce and Batman. “In Batman Begins, you see the tragedy and the pain that motivates […]